Houston Rodeo Live: Huntsville's Cody Johnson To Play Saturday

HOUSTON, TX — Cody Johnson grew up in an East Texas town so small it hardly qualifies as a tiny dot on a large map. Sebastopol sits on the east side of the Trinity River about 30 miles northeast of Huntsville as the crow flies. Like many kids in that neck of the Piney Woods, he grew up grounded in the local church.

But from across the river at night he heard country music blast from the bars and honky tonks. He was always sure to hear tunes from legends like Willie, Merle, George and other greats, long before it was legal for him to enter such clubs.

Johnson learned to play drums and eventually got into these clubs as part of a band. Then he learned guitar and wrote some original songs. When a high school teacher heard one of them, they convinced Johnson to form a band. So he and some FFA members got together and quickly rose to a second-place finish at the Texas State FFA talent contest.

He went to college in Lufkin and then dropped out. He rodeoed and broke too many bones to count, and he worked at the state prison in Huntsville. All the while, he sweated it out in local bars and clubs. He started getting more notice when he played to small crowds while working for peanuts in the Brazos Valley and in Houston. Then, out of nowhere, his fan base exploded, and so did his stardom.

Now the little kid from Sebastopol is playing the Houston Rodeo as the Saturday night headliner.

He has built up a Twitter following of 73,000 fans — impressive for a guy who's marketed and developed his career without the aid of a major label. And that oversized belt buckle he wears? He won it fair and square on the back of a bucking bull – but he broke a litany of bones: his right leg, his left arm, two ribs and his right collarbone.

He doesn't want to be a run-of-the-mill performer who makes a little music and a lot of money before slowly fading away.

"I don't want to be a blemish on country music," Cody Johnson says on his website. "I don't want to be a dot. I'd like to be a mark."

Here's a sample of what folks can expect from Cody Johnson in this video of his very popular song 'Texas Kind Of Way'

Johnson has a plethora of other hits like:

• Walk Away
  
• What's Left Of Texas
• The Only One I Know
  
• Me And My Kind
  
• I Don’t Care About You
  
• Holes
  
• (I Wouldn’t Go There) If I Were You
  
• Dance Her Home

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) enters its third weekend after the annual barbecue cook-off and 11 can't-miss concerts. The rodeo lineup reached its halfway mark Thursday night with Luke Bryan. Chris Young, the Season Four winner of USA's 'Nashville Star,' played Friday on the new, snazzy stage at NRG Stadium. Big music acts like Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Chris Young, Little Big Town, Blake Shelton, Leon Bridges, Kelsea Ballerini and Jason Aldean have already played.

The shows opened on Tuesday (Feb. 27) with Garth Brooks and will close on Sunday, March 18, with Brooks — both Garth shows are sold out. The full lineup is listed under the video. Click here to purchase individual tickets through ATX.

• Weekday rodeos start at 6:45 p.m. The entertainer(s) takes the stage at approximately 8:45 p.m.

• Weekend rodeos start at 3:45 p.m. The entertainer(s) takes the stage at approximately 5:45 p.m.

The HLSR also unveiled a newer, bigger stage for the concerts this year.

Here is the full lineup:

• Tuesday, Feb. 27 — Garth Brooks* (Country)
• Wednesday, Feb. 28 — Little Big Town (Country)
• Thursday, March 1 — Blake Shelton (Country)
• Friday, March 2 — Leon Bridges (R&B/Pop)
• Saturday, March 3 — Kelsea Ballerini (Country)
• Sunday, March 4 — Alessia Cara (Pop)
• Monday, March 5 — Rascal Flatts (Country)
• Tuesday, March 6 — Jason Aldean (Country)
• Wednesday, March 7 — Thomas Rhett (Country)
• Thursday, March 8 — Luke Bryan (Country)
• Friday, March 9 — Chris Young (Country)
• Saturday, March 10 — Cody Johnson (Country)
• Sunday, March 11 — Calibre 50 (Regional Mexican)
• Monday, March 12 — Zac Brown Band (Country)
• Tuesday, March 13 — J Balvin (Spanish Pop)
• Wednesday, March 14 — One Republic (Rock)
• Thursday, March 15 — Keith Urban (Country)
• Friday, March 16 — Chris Stapleton (Country)
• Saturday, March 17 — Brad Paisley (Country)
• Sunday, March 18 — Garth Brooks* (Country)

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* SOLD OUT

Image: Musician Cody Johnson performs on the Palomino stage during day 3 of 2017 Stagecoach California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 30, 2017 in Indio, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Stagecoach)