Randy Rogers Band & Cody Johnson to Play Portland, Seattle
Get ready Seattle and Portland! If country music is your thing and you are in the Seattle area, make sure you are at The Showbox Sodo on November 19 for Randy Rogers Band and one of country’s rising stars Cody Johnson. They’ll be in Portland a few nights prior at Dante’s. Tickets and more show information for Seattle is available HERE and Portland info is HERE.
When the Randy Rogers Band‘s last project debuted as the most-downloaded country album on iTunes, plenty of the industry “insiders” on Music Row were left scratching their heads: Who are these guys?The Nashville elite may not have known about the five-piece band, but much of America already did. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them alongside such artists as U2 and the Stones in its list of Top 10 Must-See Artists in the summer of 2007. They earned $2.5 million-a staggering total for a still-developing act-on the tour circuit in a single year. Willie Nelson, the Eagles, Gary Allan and Dierks Bentley all picked them as opening acts for their concerts. And more than 2,200 people showed up and bought the bands album at an appearance at Wherehouse Music.
The Randy Rogers Band built its audience by combining forces: It’s a dynamic live act centered around songs that fit the rowdy, party vibe of the concert circuit, but their songs also say something.That’s particularly true in the new album, The Randy Rogers Band, in which a dozen persuasive tracks give the listener plenty of reasons to want to down a celebratory brewski. But the songs also maintain a depth that makes them powerful and provocative even beyond their edgy arrangements and tough-guy sound.Indeed, the Randy Rogers Band is confronting the same questions about relationships and identity that face many of the college students and young adults that form the centerpiece of the group’s audience. The balancing act between work, home and recreation is a difficult one-even tougher for an ensemble that spends more than 200 days annually on the road.That requires a constant re-dedication to the group, a commitment the five members have repeatedly made since the current lineup coalesced in 2003.
When Cody Johnson’s Cowboy Like Me debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard Country Albums chart in January 2014, jaws dropped in offices all over Nashville.
“I got a lot of ‘Who is this kid?’” Johnson says with a laugh two years later. “I love that. That was a new horizon. And I’m gonna work to make sure people know exactly who I am.”
Johnson does that from the start in Gotta Be Me, a follow-up project that’s loaded with solid country instrumentation and winsome melodies. In the first minute alone, he paints himself as a cowboy, raised on outlaw country, who drinks too much, fights too much and won’t apologize for having an opinion. By the time the 14-track journey is over, he’s shared his rodeo history in “The Only One I Know (Cowboy Life),” demonstrated his woman’s influence in “With You I Am” and paid homage to his gospel heritage in “I Can’t Even Walk.”
Johnson delivers it all with an uncanny confidence. His smoky baritone and ultra-Southern enunciations give him a voice as uniquely identifiable as country kingpins Jason Aldean or Tim McGraw. And he uses it to convey a Texas-proud swagger, a real-man charm and an unwavering honesty about who he is, where he comes from and where he hopes to go.
Cody has been streamed over 100 MILLION times in the past 18 months. His album Gotta Be Me made it’s debut at #1 on the iTunes Country Album Chart and Cody was the #1 trending artist search across all genres on iTunes for 2 weeks (in company with Adele, Coldplay, Beyonce and Sia). He’s sold over 1 million dollars of music in the last 12 months on iTunes alone. Every label in town is now chasing him.
In the last 18 months he has old over 500,000 concert tickets and two weeks ago, 12,000 people showed up to his show at a 9,000 seat venue. It was the largest gathering in their 28 year history and caused traffic jams. Fans parked 4 miles away to walk to the venue to see him. They waited in line for over 4 and a half hours just to see him. So yeah, don’t sleep on this one because you’ll like be seeing him in an arena sized venue the next time he rolls through town. Tickets and more show information for Seattle is available HERE and Portland info is HERE.
