Cody Johnson is bridging the Texas-Nashville musical gap

ENT

Cody Johnson is bridging the Texas-Nashville musical gap

2019-07-02 01:08 Last Updated At：01:10

Ever since Willie Nelson left Nashville in the early 1970s to return to Texas, there's been a large chasm between the "red dirt" country artists working primarily in Texas and Oklahoma and the polished, radio friendly music being produced in Nashville.

Even today, there's a separate country radio chart for Texas stations and the independent country acts that are popular there often get labeled in Nashville as just "regional artists."

East Texas-raised Cody Johnson spent more than a decade in that musical scene and heard the distrust that many Texas country artists had for Nashville record labels.

"There were a lot of artists from that era who were probably a bit arrogant in the fact that 'I'm from Texas and I've got this and you're not going to tell me what to do,'" Johnson said. "I think there has been something lost on some guys from Texas that maybe thought they were Willie or Waylon."

Johnson, a former rodeo cowboy turned country singer, wants to bridge that gap by straddling the traditional and the modern, Texas and Nashville, and he's finding an audience his own way.

Warner Music Nashville's executive vice president for A&R Cris Lacy tried to sign Johnson for years, but he kept rejecting their offers. Lacy knew that major labels often got stereotyped as being heavy handed with new artists by changing their sound or forcing they work with certain producers. But she was also trying to overcome a cultural challenge.

"There's so much pride in the Texas music scene because it is so special," Lacy said. "They are very protective of it. And each Texas artist has to think about when they move on to the next step, are they going to alienate the people that believed in them?"

As an independent artist, Johnson released two albums that reached the top 10 without major label support or distribution and sold out the Houston Rodeo with 74,000 tickets. But Johnson knew that he couldn't make the next leap without the support of a label and commercial country radio.

Last year, Johnson a signed a deal with Warner Music Nashville in a 50-50 partnership with his own imprint called CoJo Music. He made it clear that he wanted creative control, including choosing his own producer and songs, owning his own publishing and even deciding how he dressed.

"There were a lot of people that wanted to change a lot about me. This being a huge factor for a lot of people," he said, pointing to his cowboy hat.

His debut as a Warner artist, "Ain't Nothin' To It," hit the top of Billboard's country album chart in January, and his first single from that album, "On My Way To You," peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's Country Airplay Chart, his best charting single yet. He's opening up for George Strait and Blake Shelton at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in August. He also opened for Luke Combs, one of country radio's fastest rising stars, on select dates this summer.

Johnson's album reflects the traditional country he idolizes but adds elements of gospel, rock and blues to sound fresh for younger ears. He chose a honky-tonk blues song written by Chris Stapleton, a rocking Charlie Daniels cover, a couple songs about the rodeo, a gospel song and a cover of Roger Miller's "Husbands and Wives."

But Johnson doesn't hold back his opinion of what he considers a bandwagon approach to contemporary country music — replicating over and over what's popular but lacks real creativity.

"It robs your listeners of authenticity," Johnson said. "I don't want to be bubblegum, and I don't care if there's a $50 million signing bonus to be bubblegum. It's not worth it to me."

He knows that he's not going to change the trend of country music back to the traditional sound he grew up listening to, but he's proving there's still a market for that music.

"I think that Warner is breaking new ground and they are giving power to artists who do know who they are," Johnson said.

Online:

www.codyjohnsonmusic.com

Follow Kristin M. Hall at http://twitter.com/kmhall

What to know as snow, freezing rain and bitter cold heads through much of the US

2025-01-05 07:11 Last Updated At：07:20

A major winter storm began Saturday in the central U.S. and was forecast to move east over the next several days, producing heavy snow, significant ice and frigid temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.

Here is what to know about the storm, which is expected to affect millions in the eastern two-thirds of the country:

A large system made landfall along the West Coast on Friday afternoon, bringing rain to the Pacific Northwest with snow expected in the Cascade Mountains, according to meteorologists.

The system will be responsible for the development of a major winter storm from the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic this weekend into early next week.

By Saturday evening, widespread heavy snow was likely in areas between central Kansas and Indiana, especially along and north of Interstate 70, where there was a high chance of at least 8 inches (20 centimeters).

For places in the region that typically experience the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade, meteorologists said.

The storm will then move into the Ohio Valley, with severe travel disruptions expected, and reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday into Monday.

Wind gusts higher than 35 mph (56 kph) and heavy rates of snowfall could lead to blizzard conditions, particularly in Kansas and nearby portions of the Central Plains by Sunday morning.

Whiteout conditions may make driving dangerous to impossible and heighten the risk of becoming stranded.

Icy roads were causing traffic problems Saturday in Kansas, and forecasters warned that sleet and freezing rain could extend into Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and much of Kentucky and West Virginia.

Power outages were likely in areas with more than a quarter-inch (a half centimeter) of ice accumulation.

“It’s going to be a mess, a potential disaster,” private meteorologist Ryan Maue said.

Starting Monday, people in the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling air and wind chills, forecasters said.

Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) colder than normal as the polar vortex stretches down from the high Arctic.

“This could lead to the coldest January for the U.S. since 2011,” AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said Friday, noting that there could be up to a week or more of “temperatures that are well below historical average.”

The biggest drop below normal was likely to be centered over the Ohio Valley, but significant and unusual cold will extend south to the Gulf Coast, said Danny Barandiaran, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.

A hard freeze was even expected in Florida, he added.

“The wind chills are going to be brutal,” Woodwell Climate Research Institute climate scientist Jennifer Francis said. "Just because the globe is warming doesn’t mean these cold snaps are going away.”

The brutal weather may be spurred in part by a fast-warming Arctic, a reminder that climate change gooses weather extremes, said Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast director at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research.

The polar vortex — ultra-cold air spinning like a top — usually stays above the North Pole, but sometimes it stretches down to the U.S., Europe or Asia.

Cohen and colleagues have published several studies showing an increase in the polar vortex stretching or wandering. Cohen and others published a study last month attributing the cold outbreaks partly to changes from an Arctic that is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe.