Mary Jane Farmer, First printed in The Paris News
From playing music on his pickup’s tailgate to traveling in a big-time bus, Cody Johnson just keeps moving on up. First, he took Texas like a storm, and now he’s traveling coast to coast, more like a Texas tornado, except that, unlike a tornado, he’s only leaving good times in his wake.
Cody Johnson has been making music as a career for about 10years, and before that, as many people living in the Huntsville area do, he worked for the prison system, all the while playing music and rodeoing. One of his responsibilities was to guard prisoners as they worked in the fields, and for that he rode horses. It was then that he met Brandi, “who was to become my wife, and Howie (Edelman), who gave me the avenue into full-time music. Howieo pened the doors and leveled with me on what he expected out of me. We shook hands and have been thick as thieves ever since,” Johnson said.
A short while back, Johnson, who has been an independent for lo, these many years, signed a recording contract with Warner Music Nashville.This time, he laid it out for Warner’s ‘people’ as to what he required. And, toJohnson’s amazement, they agreed on the conditions. He wasn’t willing to give up doing everything his way, since his way had been successful for so long. Some of those items Johnson and his original team maintains control over, according to information provided, are his publishing, his masters, creative control, the tour schedule they keep, and how they run their operation. John Esposito, Warner’s president, said they don’t want to change anything about him or his music. Instead, Warner is working to get him more major market radio stations, outside of the Texas Regional Radio Report areas.
To that end, the first release off Cody’s upcoming CD, Ain’t Nothing To It, has already made waves on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, currently at No. 29. They’ve made a video of the song, “On My Way To You,” which has had more than ½ million views, and the song was the first cut off the album to be available on streaming sites. Now, they’ve released five songs on streaming, and encouraging fans to pre-purchase the CD, which is available on his Website, CodyJohnsonMusic.com and on Amazon.com.
In November, Cody and his band shared the stage with Texas artist Jon Wolfe, and with another on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, David Lee Murphy, at Fair Park in Dallas. David Lee performed his charted song, “I Won’t Be Sorry,” along with his hits, “Dust On The Bottle,” “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not,” and “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” that he penned for Nashville performers.
The differences between the Murphy’s and Johnson’s styles can make a real country music lover grateful that Johnson made it clear he’s going to hold onto what he’s been doing. Nothing against the Nashville music — most of the people in the Fair Park Coliseum knew every lyric to every song Murphy sang — so it does have great value in today’s music world.
Then, when Johnson belts out his only cover on the new recording project, Ain’t Nothing To It,Charlie Daniels’s “Long Haired Country Boy,” one remembers that Johnson has always been real country.
It has to be that way, because Cody himself is a real, working cowboy, and it’s the only life he has known. It ain’t Cody’s first rodeo, and to that end, he recorded“Dear Rodeo” on this CD to be released in mid-January. “Dear Rodeo” is also one that is currently available to those who pre-order via streaming.
A highlight to his music, he said in an earlier interview, was when he was in Las Vegas and Moe Bandy “actually walked up to me and said, ‘Thank you for playing real country music.’”
Talking with Cody makes one realize that there’s no overblown ego going on inside that spirit of his, and when asked how he maintained his down-to-earth personality, he simply replied, “There’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness.” He learned that, originally, he said in the rodeo arena. “Rodeo instilled something in me. You check your ego every day and, when you do, you’ll be OK down in the arena. I use that same mentality toward my shows.”
Story by Mary Jane Farmer, courtesy photos
