Music in the Mountains ~ The Road to the BBR: Cody Johnson

Held in Challis, Idaho in August, the Braun Brothers Reunion is three days of music featuring esteemed artists from the Texas, Americana and Red Dirt scenes. This year, the BBR will be held from August 11-13th and will feature sixteen plus artists, including Cody Johnson who is gearing up to release his highly anticipated new album, Gotta Be Me. Johnson kindly took the time to call from the road to talk about playing the festival, Gotta Be Me, and more.

This will be your first time playing the BBR. How did you come to be a part of it and why did you want to participate?
They asked me to play, but honestly they didn’t really say anything to me personally. I found out that we picked it up and when I saw them at Steamboat it was like “Thanks for having us.” (laughing) All of the Braun brothers are stand up guys who have always treated me well. They’ve always been a fan of mine as much as I have been a fan of theirs and I’m really excited to play the festival.
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It’s a whole new world for us because we’ve never played the BBR or the state of Idaho before. And to be asked to play at this event is something else. It’s one of those things when you’re a younger guy in the industry you always hear about  and one day you finally get to be a part of it and it becomes something that you can look forward to from year to year.

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Other than it being a great time, have been told what to expect?
Nobody said anything to me about it yet, so I’m going into this one blind! It’s a little intimidating the first time you’re at an event, you have to make sure all of your I’s are dotted and your T’s are crossed. I’m a little nervous with all of the people I am getting to share the stage with, but I’m trying to keep my nervousness under wraps here. It’s going to be fun no matter which way we look at it.

Absolutely.
You are playing on Saturday, the last day of the festival. Will you be there for all three days?
I think we will get there for part of the day before depending on where we're coming from. Usually, on a long run like this, we’ll play shows all the way there and all the way back. For sure though, the day we play we’ll be there all day to take it all in. My wife and daughter will be flying in for the show too which will be nice.

Many of the artists playing are from Texas or tour regularly in Texas. Is there anyone, in particular, whom you want to see?
I’m a fan of everybody on this bill which is why I wish I could come up for a couple days and just watch them play because I rarely get a chance to just watch people. And I say watch because you can listen to music on the radio, but to watch it live is totally something different you know.

I wholeheartedly agree.
Speaking of watching who is on stage, will you be bringing a full band?
Ours will be a full band show. We will be coming off of the release of the new album, so we will be probably split our time playing a lot of new stuff with the songs they want to hear.

The new album, Gotta Be Me will be released about a week before the BBR, on August 5th. What is the significance of the title?
I think the title is a big statement in and of itself. "Gotta Be Me" is a song on the record that I wrote with David Lee and it's pretty self-explanatory. No matter what happens in this business, I have to be true to myself in the clothes I wear, the truck I drive, the music I play and the lyrical content of my songs. I don’t want to be enslaved by trends. That said, I don’t think that what I do is better than anyone else, I’m just humbly confident in who I am both musically and personally and wanted to make a statement on this record that says just that...and lets everyone else know exactly who I am as well.

The album is already out for pre-order and from the looks of social media, people are pretty excited.
It’s amazing; the people are almost getting a little bit riotous (laughing). The pre-order is up and when you pre-order you get three songs from the album, “Gotta Be Me,” “The Only One I Know (Cowboy Life),” which is one of my favorites on the record, and our current single, “With You I Am.”

"With You I Am" is an incredibly touching ballad. Is there a story behind that song?
I wrote this song with Trent Willmon and David Lee. A lot of songs start off with a conversation in the writer’s room and that day we were talking about that one special person in our lives and how we were one way before we met her, but once we met her we changed.  And we didn’t change because she asked us to quit something or start doing something, we just did it - without her we were one person, and with her we were this other, better person. It's like you can be the winning quarterback, but until you meet her, then you feel like John Elway.

It’s the way you feel no matter if you’re short, tall, white, black, red, yellow, or brown. It doesn’t matter where you come from, every guy has felt that way about a girl and every girl wants a guy to feel that way about her. So we tried to make a generally relatable song about how all three of us felt about that special person in our lives.

You definitely touched on something that is very relatable.
I imagine that with the record coming out, you will be hitting the road pretty hard. Will you be expanding the areas where you tour, such as the east coast?
The first show after the release is at Cowboys in San Antonio and it’s going to be packed. And then every show we play for the next six months after the release will focus around the album. We’ve been blessed to beat the pavement and reach out to a lot of new markets, but I’ll be honest with you, the Eastern states, whether it be the north or the south, are the hardest to break into. It takes going and playing in front of seventy-five people who have no clue who you are and then going back and playing for the same seventy-five who now know all of the words to the songs and then turning that into 175. It’s a labor of love and if you don’t feel the passion for what you do and can’t handle taking one on the chin in new markets for the first couple of times, then this not for you, you know? Fortunately, we have plans in action to reach where we haven’t been yet. We don’t want to get too comfortable.

For more information on Cody Johnson visit his official webite
Find him on Facebook and Twitter

Johnson plays the BBR on Saturday, August 13th
For all of the information on the 2016 Braun Brothers Reunion, held August 11-13, including tickets, lodging, the full line-up and much more, visit the official website
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Tickets are available as follows:
One Day Pass $50
Two Day Pass (Fri & Sat ONLY) $76.30
Three Day Pass $114.30
Kids age 5 and under get in FREE
Kids age 6-12 $15
Kids tickets are only available at gate, day of show.​

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