Country star Jamey Johnson plays at the Mahaffey in St. Petersburg

It’s been five years since his last full-length album, but Jamey Johnson is still one of the biggest and most respected artists in country music.

He’s earned 11 Grammy Awards nominations, which is especially impressive for someone who has only released four albums, and The Washington Post called him “one of the greatest country singers of our time.”

Johnson will perform Thursday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg.

His recording career started in 2002 with an album that went nowhere. In 2006, he hit it big with his major-label debut, “The Dollar,” and the single of the same title. Besides establishing Johnson as a performer, it also brought him attention as a songwriter, and several other Nashville artists recorded songs from that first album.

The next two albums – “That Lonesome Song” in 2008 and two-CD “The Guitar Song” in 2010 – propelled Johnson into the upper echelons of country stardom.

“In Color,” from “That Lonesome Song,” has been his most successful single.

His most recent full-length album was “Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran,” in which Johnson and an impressive roster of guest artists (Alison Krause, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell and Elvis Costello among them) performed songs by the great country songwriter who hit his popular peak during the 1960s.

Details: 7:30 p.m. May 25, Mahaffey Theater, 401 First St. S., St. Petersburg. $30-$65. 727-892-5767, themahaffey.com.

This story was originally published May 24, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Country star Jamey Johnson plays at the Mahaffey in St. Petersburg."