There’s no doubting Johns’s credentials to supply an album of grizzled country and folk. He has played with Crosby, Stills and Nash and produced records by Ryan Adams and Ray Lamontagne. But for anyone not instantly sold on gravel-voiced Americana, it’ll feel like hard work. Careworn tales of the road are one thing, but you wish that tracks such as 6+9 didn’t sound quite so weary. There’s a hair shirt quality to Johns’s rasping growl too. These songs are not devoid of pleasures; pedal steel player BJ Cole supplies some beautiful embellishments and the acoustic guitars on closer I’m Comin Home twinkle nicely. But it feels like a long, slow journey getting there.