{"id":19568,"date":"2026-04-25T18:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/19568\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T18:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:53:48","slug":"cody-johnson-showcases-vocals-patriotism-in-stagecoach-set-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/19568\/","title":{"rendered":"Cody Johnson showcases vocals, patriotism in Stagecoach set: Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cody Johnson<\/a> said it multiple times during his day 1 headlining set<\/a> at the Stagecoach Music Festival<\/a>: It was his microphone, and he was going to use it.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just what Johnson did on Friday, April 24, as he reminisced about his days selling $5 CDs outside small town rodeos earlier in his career. It\u2019s what he did as he touchingly spoke about his experience walking through the campgrounds and marveling at the diversity of the people he saw there.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what he did as he talked about his experience with the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

And yes, it\u2019s what he did as he delivered what some would surely find to be some politically-charged monologues, declaring at the end of one \u201cdon\u2019t let anybody tell you that patriotism is dead.\u201d (Johnson, it should be noted here, would probably say there was nothing politically charged about his statements honoring those who have served or laid down their lives for America, border patrol among them, and calling for American unity).<\/p>\n

But most of all, Johnson used his microphone to showcase some darn impressive vocals as he blasted through a powerful set that shut up everyone who had doubts about whether he had what it takes to be a satisfying Stagecoach headliner (surely I can\u2019t be the only who had them).<\/p>\n

One of the things I\u2019ve always loved about Stagecoach is the simplicity of it all, which can feel especially refreshing after two weekends of Coachella sets filled with background dancers, pyrotechnics and lasers in what can sometimes feel like an endless battle between artists to one up each other. <\/p>\n

\"Cody<\/p>\n

Cody Johnson plays his headlining set on the Mane Stage during Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, Calif., Friday, April 24, 2026.<\/p>\n

Well, Johnson\u2019s set was simple and understated to the nth degree as much of the singer\u2019s show consisted of (as he himself noted) just him and his guitar with only his logo showing on the big screens behind him.<\/p>\n

It was the kind of vibe and presentation you would expect to see at 2 p.m. in Stagecoach\u2019s Bud Light Backyard, not a day 1 headlining set. But it kept our attention on Johnson (who seemed to relish the moment) and his potent voice, which he particularly showed off on \u201cHuman,\u201d \u201cThe Fall,\u201d and \u201cTil You Can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t assume, however, that Johnson\u2019s straightforward showmanship meant he would eschew the kind of bigtime surprises festival headliners are known for delivering. To the contrary, Johnson kept with his insistence on doing things his way to deliver one of the more esoteric, or perhaps just unexpected, guests we\u2019ve seen at Stagecoach.<\/p>\n

\"Cody<\/p>\n

Cody Johnson performs his headlining set on the Mane Stage during Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, Calif., Friday, April 24, 2026.<\/p>\n

That was none other than the famous vocal harmony group Boys II Men, who joined Johnson on stage to perform a new rendition of their 1994 ballad \u201cOn Bended Knee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYa\u2019ll just witnessed the legends\u2019\u201d said Johnson, and I can\u2019t imagine anyone would disagree. Although, if I am being honest, many in the young-leaning Stagecoach crowd seemed unenthused, which maybe shouldn\u2019t be surprising given Boys II Men\u2019s heyday came before many in the crowd were born (perhaps they would rather have seen Carrie Underwood, who appeared only via music video for \u201cI\u2019m Gonna Love You.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Johnson\u2019s surprises didn\u2019t stop there. He then declared that the performance of the next song of the set would be filmed for a music video before bringing out Jay Buchanan, lead singer of the Long Beach rock band Rival Sons. The two then performed their new collaboration \u201cRabbit Gets the Gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to light up Indio,\u201d declared Johnson as he started that part of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fixing to go from R&B to rock n roll,\u201d he said moments later.<\/p>\n

He was right on both accounts, with each statement providing a fitting summation of the show as a whole.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s last surprise came when he became a rare Stagecoach artist to play an encore, which consisted of \u201cTraveling Soldier\u201d and \u201cDiamond in my Pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the hell are ya\u2019ll going, we\u2019ve got two songs left,\u201d yelled Johnson, who was either refreshingly unaware of the typical encore-free festival protocol or pretending to be for dramatic effect as he started \u201cTravelin’ Soldier.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, if I remember this set for one thing, it likely won\u2019t be that encore, the Boys2Men cover or even the patriotic moment when he led the crowd in the singing of “God Bless America.”<\/p>\n

Instead, what I\u2019ll remember is what Johnson said after he talked happily about his experience in the campground that morning, just before he played \u201cHuman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if tomorrow morning we all wake up and treat every person we encounter who is different than us like a human being?\u201d he said. \u201cWouldn\u2019t that do something for this country and for the world?\u201d<\/p>\n

So, it was that last message Johnson left us with that I don\u2019t think anyone would disagree with.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cody Johnson performs one of most patriotic sets in Stagecoach history<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cody Johnson said it multiple times during his day 1 headlining set at the Stagecoach Music Festival: It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,9822,555,9823],"class_list":{"0":"post-19568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-cody-johnson","10":"tag-stagecoach","11":"tag-stagecoach-music-festival"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}