When it comes to music, the Internet is increasingly fulfilling its early promise as the ultimate library. Though much of the music it holds is illegally or quasi-legally posted, sometimes it feels like you can find nearly everything ever recorded online if you're willing to do some serious digging.

Thankfully it's not always necessary to resort to this vast gray market to find great music that fell out of print decades ago. In 2008 legitimate record labels continued to churn out killer reissues--so many, in fact, that I was often tempted to simply let myself recede into the past, basking in vintage sounds as fresh and vital as anything made today.

Leading the charge over the past couple years has been the revived No matter how hard we might try, family gatherings and holiday season don't always add up to joyous -- or even peaceful -- experiences. But when the I met Jacksonville's Former My favorite yearly music bash, the Last night I was ready to announce "last call" when I put on Letterman to check out the music guest. There loomed Jamey Johnson, this truck-driving fella with a rich, burly voice. He recounted a conversation with his WWII-vet granddaddy ... and I nearly had to wipe a manly tear from my eye. Titled "In Color," the song is moving without being maudlin, and Johnson, who co-wrote the number, delivers the touching lyric with old-school, outlaw authority -- and charm. Fatherly charm. Big brother charm. Two old pals with lots of battle scars sharing a bear-hug charm.

But "In Color" is not the most gripping song on Johnson's breakthrough disc That Lonesome Song. That honor goes to the nearly six-minute long "High Cost of Living (Ain't Nothing Like the Cost of Living High)," another original. Here's this mainstream country singer -- Johnson's on