I want to order both of his albums. I graduated from high school with Johnny.

Anyone in love with the great American genre collectively known as Country Music will love this career retrospective spanning 1957 to 2006 by Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductee, Johnny Jay Huhta. There have been several different strains to country music that have evolved over the years…many turns and byways…and this great (albeit lesser-known) artist has traveled many of them, totally immersing himself in the changes. A Duluth, Minnesota native, Johnny Jay started out in rockabilly, that wild child mixture of country, hillbilly, western swing, boogie woogie and jump blues. Though it was mainly Southern in origin, Johnny Jay took to it like a duck to water; the tracks represented here are nothing but the real d eal. 1957-1958 era songs like “I’m Gonna Keep It,” “Sugar Doll” and his originals “That’s What I Like About Love” and “Let Me Keep You Company” illustrate that from the beginning Johnny Jay was a completely natural singer, musician and songwriter. The raw edge to his voice on a song like “Sugar Doll” would excite any modern youth into grunge music or punk rock, while his smoother side carried him into Ricky Nelson-like territory on songs like “Let Me Keep You Company.” But time changes, music changes, and so do people, and this collection shows that eventually Johnny Jay moved quite comfortably into mainstream country. As a listener, I really like the fact that this collection is not sequenced chronologically. The old and the new are mixed up in a very nice program and we a constantly reminded of the whole picture. My one critique would be that the tracks aren’t dated in the package, making it hard for the more historically-minded listener to tell “what” came along “when.” That aside, these remaining all-country tracks are equally wonderful. And impressively, everyone is a Johnny Jay original. One thing you first notice is how much Johnny Jay’s voice has evolved and changed over the years. In fact it would be difficult to recognize the singer of “Sugar Doll” as the same singer in “Touch My World.” However, little twists and turns tie them all together. Johnny Jay has always been an expert at phrasing his words and stories; he always finds the right pocket for the lyric in the melody and gets its meaning across. He has always been a genuine and confident singer. And like many country artists, Johnny Jay is quite open about the fact that much of his life was tough and in the end a long hard battle with sobriety (a battle he won, I might add). Life as a musician on the road is no romantic picnic, so it is no surprise then that many of the songs are about love relationships gone wrong and tavern life. But of course these happen to be the two of the main topics in country songwriting! Johnny Jay writes lyrics that articulately and vividly paint the ups and downs of these experiences, while at the same crafting songs that are entertaining and stick in your head like glue. “One Way Ticket” is an up-tempo classic that evokes the best of Hank Snow. The shuffle-tune “Tears (Keep On Falling)” sounds like it could have been a hit by any number of the Opry legends. The bottle is the recurring theme of songs like “Rosy Glow,” “When the Blues Come Along,” the been-there-done-that recitation “The Bartender Song” and “Brown Bottle” (a farewell to drinking). All four are well written and devoid of cliché. If you’ve heard Johnny Jay before, you know his lyrics often exhibit wit and clever word play and both qualities are on full bloom in the hard luck song “Buck $2.80” and the self-deprecating love pitch, “Reasonable Facsimile Thereof.” The three remaining songs are also winners: “I Don’t Leave Home Without It” is about staying faithful and true while out with the boys, “Touch My World” is a tender offer of support to someone whose life is troubled, and “I Think of You” (the one track from “Back in the Game”) sings of how events and occurrences can bring back the memory of a love long gone. I love this CD. No matter which era each track was recorded, it is skillfully supported by great string-popping session players, many them legends in Nashville music. Johnny Jay Huhta may not be a household name, but this collection bears testimony to one of the truly great artists to emerge from our Frozen North. Bob Dylan and Prince watch out! Eric Peltoniemi

I like to Listen to music and John Huhta makes good music. Get a good cup of coffe, prop your feet up on the table, watch the river slide by, listen to John sing; doesn't get any better. Listen to "A Road Well Travelled", more of the good for a long time.

I told my wife I was going to order one of Johnny's CD'S, and she said "Why not get them both...glad she did.."The first one we listened to was "A Road Well Traveled"...some old favorites...the kind that make you want to sing along.It's real country.