Houston's Weekend Planning Guide

[From Cody Johnson.com]
"I don't want to be a blemish on country music," Cody Johnson says. "I don't want to be a dot. I'd like to be a mark."

"I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie."

Needing a fix is part of the attraction in both the rodeo and music. In the former, there's always another buckle to chase, another bull to conquer for eight seconds. In the latter, there's always another fan to win over, another song to write. And in some ways, Johnson has been chasing something illusory, indefinable, since he first arrived on planet Earth in Southeast Texas.

Cody Johnson grew up in tiny Sebastapol, an unincorporated community on the eastern shore of the Trinity River that's never exceeded 500 residents. Even today, it's more than 30 miles to the nearest Walmart, in Huntsville, Texas, a town best known as the headquarters for the state's criminal justice department. It's a rough and tumble area, and it comes through in the music. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, Billy Joe Shaver – their songs were all essential to the local clubs, and Johnson was exposed to their mysterious allure even before he was old enough to get in.

"You could hear the music from those bars across that lake," he recalls. "I'd always hear somebody singing ‘Whiskey Bent And Hell Bound' or something like that, and I always wondered what was going on across that water in those barrooms. It definitely intrigued me. I always wanted to go see what was on the other side of the tracks."

At a young age, Johnson was given the tools to eventually work in those clubs, though his official education was grounded in the church. His father played drums for their congregation, and that was likewise the first instrument that young Cody picked up.

"Learning drums first taught me about feeling the song – feeling that dynamic of when it's supposed to be big and when it's supposed to be soft," he says. "I think that still sticks with me as a songwriter and as a performer, and in turn it's helped me shape my band, because I know what I'm looking for on every front."