Album Review – Addison Johnson’s “The State I’m In”
Traditional Country (#510) and Progressive Country (#564.5) on the Country DDS.
Addison Johnson knows his place in the country music world. The North Carolina native is used to seeing his name in the smaller letters on a marquee below the featured performer, and in the lowercase font on the festival poster with the other 3:00 pm acts. He knows he’s got something to prove, and has to work twice as hard as others for half the recognition. But he also believes in himself and his music, and puts it all out there in a career effort via his latest album The State I’m In.
Writing all the songs himself except for one co-write, Addison Johnson illustrates incredible breath and diversity of material, while keeping it all well within the greater country canon. Clever ideas and turns of phrase mixed with tasty and twangy instrumentation make for one fetching country song after another that is the perfect balance between familiar and accessible, and involved and thought-provoking. This is country music at an elevated level that belies Addison’s otherwise underdog status.
Sure, you have those simple, pithy traditional country songs that go down so easy like “Maybe I’m Lonely Too” and “Almost Over You Again,” reminding you of every great ol’ country song, only rendered in an original form. But then Johnson elevates his game and adds a bit more imagination to both the music and the writing. Talk about doing a twister on the classic murder ballad theme, Addison’s “F5” is imaginative and riveting storytelling at its finest.
To be honest, you get a little worried with how the albums starts off since the opening song “Run Them Roads” has a bit of a list-tastic thing going on, even if it’s balanced out with some Tyler Childers influence too. But the thing about being Addison Johnson is you can have a few more catchy and fun songs when you can chase then with stuff that goes deeper.
Addison captures a lot of moods, and stimulates a range of emotions in just 12 tracks. But if there’s one themes to The State I’m In, it’s addressing the state of his life as an independent country musician facing an onslaught of challenges that have never been greater. Instead of just whining though, Addison uses his challenges as inspiration for some of the album’s best songs. “Money Business” might present a bleak picture, but it’s also one hell of a clever and enjoyable song to listen to.
You don’t have to be a struggling musician to identify with “What’s Left of Me” about betting on and believing in yourself, even if the odds seem insurmountable, and even as the flexibility of youth begins to dwindle. “I Ain’t Livin'” is also an easily-identifiable sentiment about taking an honest assessment about a life stuck in a rut. “The State I’m In” deftly exploits double meanings with a head full of doubt, and makes for a worthy title track.
This album isn’t a masterpiece. “The Conspiracy Song” says a lot, but struggles to really say anything of meaning. And the hook of “Let Me Ask Ya, Alaska” is a tough one to bite on, making for a soft patch on the record. Yet when you listen to the recent albums from the likes of Cody Johnson and Luke Combs, you wonder if they know there’s great country songs out there like the ones Addison Johnson features on The State I’m In. Why can’t all country music try this hard, and assume the audience has an at least an average intelligence level and doesn’t need everything to be so easily digestible?
No matter how well life might or might not be going for you, it’s an eternal part of the human experience to always be measuring yourself against others, to feel like you’re falling a step behind the herd, that you’re just out of reach of your dreams, and that contentment remains elusively around the corner. But those struggles and that endless pursuit are part of the point. Though various sentiments and bouts of storytelling, Addison Johnson encapsulates these ever-present feelings in the full-bodied listening experience of The State I’m In.
8.4/10
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Stream on Spotify
July 1, 2026 @ 10:54 am
Its why I love SCM! Always exposing under the radar talent that I would never have heard otherwise!
Sounds like a great album!
July 1, 2026 @ 11:08 am
I saw him live last fall at a small venue and he’s great! I’d recommend checking out his earlier stuff as well, Dangerous Men is an excellent album.
July 1, 2026 @ 12:05 pm
One of the best albums of 2026, so far. Also listen to his previous two records. These are just as good as The State I’m In.
July 1, 2026 @ 12:26 pm
hook
July 1, 2026 @ 1:38 pm
It seems like almost everything gets an 8 point something rating, unless it’s what’s his name who sucks that got a 6 point something last week. What’s the point of a ten point scale of everything is within 2 or 3 points of each other??
Also I have to write this guy off immediately for using the exact same turn of phrase that Butch Hancock wrote for Joe Ely as the title of his album. And the cover art.
July 1, 2026 @ 1:53 pm
Hey Wisconsin Sam,
I’ve addressed this many times in the past, but don’t take it for granted that you might have not seen it.
The primary reason most reviews end up in the 7.5-8.5 range is because this is the range when an album is worth reviewing. If an independent artist sends me a really bad album or something I don’t think readers will enjoy, there’s not a lot of reason or incentive to feature it. That doesn’t mean I won’t review bad albums. I definitely have in the past. But they’re not a priority. My priority is featuring albums that readers hopefully like, and that I can offer material support to the artist by reviewing them.
Also, I review around 120 albums a year or so. Though the vast majority of those are from independent artists, I usually review about 12-15 of the top mainstream album releases in country each year. With those albums since they tend to have such significant cultural impact, I’m more willing to review them even if the grade is going to fall beneath 7.5. The Cody Johnson album is a good example. But if it’s good like the Kacey Musgraves album, it can still get a good score.
There are 9+ rated albums too. Emily Scott Robinson’s “Appalachia” got a 9.5 earlier this year. I wish I gave out more 9+ ratings, but the album has to earn it. If everyone got 9s, it would lose its value. A 10 means it’s a masterpiece. And as we know, that’s difficult to impossible to attain.
Finally, I always say that the ratings are the most meaningless and arbitrary part of a review. It’s the written text where the true opinion is shared.
Thanks for reading.
July 2, 2026 @ 12:42 am
Who are the 9.5’s and 10s of the past year or two?
July 2, 2026 @ 7:05 am
Pretty sure the last ten was something to grow on by Silverada. Which has been like 5 years. The Emily Scott Robinson got over a 9 this year. Only other bigger than 9 I remember the last few years is the Karen Jonas album the rise and fall of American kitsch.
July 2, 2026 @ 7:11 am
On a different note, Trigger with all this music that you have listened to over the years, you must have an incredible collection! Do you have a mixture of physical and digital. Thought of this the other day.
July 2, 2026 @ 7:20 am
Amazingly, somehow he was able to get it all on 8 track.
July 2, 2026 @ 7:37 am
I too have often wondered this.
July 2, 2026 @ 10:59 am
I do have a healthy collection of vinyl, and do keep a catalog of CDs of stuff that’s either not available digitally, or stuff that I just like just in case the grid goes down. But with all the music I’m tasked to sift through, I really just can’t do physical media as much because it would constitute a part time job just storing and cataloging it all. Jack White once said don’t trust a critic without a turntable. I do have a turntable, but I don’t listen to every title on vinyl, and a lot of them aren’t even available on it. I do listen on different mediums though. I have my main system that has incredible range, but then if I have a question about mixing/mastering, I will listen on headphones, eabuds, or in the truck.
July 2, 2026 @ 12:31 pm
Thanks for sharing and Happy Fourth!
July 2, 2026 @ 11:56 pm
I really like this guy’s music. All his albums have been solid even if a little bit all over the place.
July 3, 2026 @ 5:32 am
I’m glad you also called out the album’s “sequencing” at the start. I gave it a brief listen while driving the other day and up came “Run Them Roads” and I turned it off due to the “listical” nature of it.
I’ll have to dive in deeper as it sounds like the further in you go the songs get a bit “meatier” and likely more to my liking. “Run Them Roads” is likely a good live song, but I was like “yeah, this is a bit too close to bro-country” for my tastes.
July 5, 2026 @ 1:17 pm
“What’s Left of Me” is a nicely written song, and I’ll now check out the rest of the album too.
Trigger is correct in saying that the solo-written songs on this album are stronger than a lot of the committee-written Nashville songs that are making it onto major country artists’ records. When a major artist isn’t insisting on (co-)writing their own songs, I think Nashville really needs to start casting a wider net again when looking for tunes. A lot of the songwriting ground in Music City has been badly over tilled.
July 5, 2026 @ 5:31 pm
Addison Johnson has been one of my favorites since SCM introduced me to his music a few years ago. Always found even his silly sings so clever in the best ways!
July 6, 2026 @ 1:16 am
Trigger. Thanks for the review and for exposing me to this artist. I picked up the CD and look forward to hearing the full album.
July 7, 2026 @ 5:36 pm
Thanks for bringing this album to our attention. I like several songs quite a bit, and I like his unaffected style and sincerity, and yes, intelligence.