I was hiking in the mountains listening to the new Jamey Johnson album "The Guitar Song".

It’s gonna take a good long time for me to unpack this sucker.  It’s a double album in an era when people only care about singles.  Then again, "The Guitar Song" ain’t like regular country music, you know, the fake shit you hear on the radio about babies and churches with a banjo thrown in to make you realize this pabulum’s got ROOTS!  If you’re blazing your own path, you get to do it your own way.

And a bunch of the songs are about the economic situation.  Not the pandering crap of the usual suspects, but the blue collar angst of men who’ve been screwed by the fat cats and want their revenge.  I want my revenge, don’t you?  How can it be that Goldman Sachs ruined the country and no one goes to jail and these fucks continue to get rich?

Watcha gonna do about that?  Worried about your bills while sold-out politicians say they care about you but are beholden to corporations that pay no tax.  Who’s gonna soothe your soul? Certainly not Sarah Palin, not unless she gets paid.  And Barack Obama is so fearful of demonstrating black rage he’s in bed with the worst of whitey.

Maybe that’s who we need in power.  An angry black man.  Who’s gonna put the fear of God deep into the heart of all the chiselers.  That’s what broke rap, it was the sound of the streets.  Now it’s the sound of the ATM.

But this Jamey Johnson record.  It’s got the roots of Alabama with the hope of a rube in California.  It evidences humanity.

But the track I’m writing about here is not the social comment with authentic country instrumentation.  I’m writing about the ANTHEM!

That’s what’s astounding about "The Guitar Song".  It sounds like country.  You know, the shit you hear at the general store, the music that comes to mind when you think of "Deliverance".  A sound not made for the radio, but the people.  It evidences a humanity that satiates crackers and frightens you.

But "Heartache" sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd.  It’s closer to Alice In Chains’ "Rooster" than anything by Taylor Swift.  It’s that music that grabs you by the gut and has you raising your fist in the air.

Oh, there’s a cool lyric.  Heartache is personified.  The names of famous broken couples are trotted out.  But what hooks you immediately is the organ.  As if Felix Cavaliere met with Alan Price and they tried to capture the sound of the Mississippi Delta.  Then, there’s a bit of guitar pickin’.  Not chicken pickin’, but strumming that sets the mood.

And then world-weary Jamey starts to sing.  He didn’t win a talent contest.  Didn’t give it a year before he went to grad school.  This is his life.

And the track is building like Fleetwood Mac’s "The Chain".

And then there’s a chorus, not as great as one in a Beatles song, but it’s more than serviceable.  The background vocals put it over the top.

And by time they hit the second verse, you’re hooked.  You were just minding your own business, listening to a record, and then suddenly somebody jerked the steering wheel and drove you right into the ditch.  Everything that mattered before is suddenly meaningless.

And now the guitars are electric.  There’s more than one.  You’re reminded of the Allman Brothers.

The song breaks down.  And then it starts to BUILD!  And for the remaining two minutes Jamey and the band WAIL!

There’s no dancing involved.  Not on stage.  But in the audience, you’ve got longhairs shuffling their feet, nodding their heads, not that the band cares, they’re playing for themselves.  You feel like you’re getting a peek at something magical.

And I’m listening to an MP3 on an iPod.  Imagine if I had vinyl or an SACD on the big rig.  The whole house would shake, sixty years on I’d have the same feeling as I had back then.

I’m not quite that old.  But every time I hear that Elton John song, I’m taken to a place that’s both dead and alive.  Like someone lifted the lid of a casket.  I can’t help but look.  This is death. This is life.  This visceral experience is so rare today.

I had to hit repeat.  And then again.  When you hear something this good, you can’t let it go!

I go through life looking for peak experiences.  And when I’m bitten on the ass unexpectedly, I feel fully alive.

That’s how I felt tonight.