It's going to be a great year at the Tri State Rodeo in Fort Madison, Iowa this year, September 7,8&9th! Get ready for the best fast paced rodeo around and concerts featuring National Recording Acts with 965 Kiss Country, Cody Johnson, Smash Mouth and Jon Pardi!
Cody Johnson is no stranger to the rodeo arena. After briefly attending Angelina College in Lufkin, Texas, he traded in his books to become a professional bull rider. Johnson did okay in that sport â the oversized belt buckle he wears today was won fair and square on the back of a bucking bull â but he broke a litany of bones: his right leg, his left arm, two ribs and his right collarbone. âThatâs a very, very rough sport to be in,â Johnson notes. âItâs very, very rough on your body. Itâs very rough on your mind, and itâs scary. I mean thereâs not a professional bull rider that wonât tell you itâs not scary. If it wasnât scary, we wouldnât do it.â
His current Gotta Be Me project, paints him as a cowboy, raised on outlaw country, who drinks too much, fights too much and wonât apologize for having an opinion. By the time the 14-track journey is over, heâs shared his rodeo history in âThe Only One I Know (Cowboy Life),â demonstrated his womanâs influence in âWith You I Amâ and paid homage to his gospel heritage in âI Canât Even Walk.â This album is loaded with solid country instrumentation and winsome melodies.
His love of music was passed down from his father, who played drums for their congregation at church. The drums were the first instrument Cody picked up, âLearning drums first taught me about feeling the song â feeling that dynamic of when itâs supposed to be big and when itâs supposed to be soft,â he says. â
Johnson learned guitar next, and when a teacher heard him playing an original song, he convinced Johnson to form a band with a few other students enrolled in the Future Farmers of America. Just a few months later, that first band finished runner-up in a Texas State FFA talent contest, creating an internal buzz that Johnson would continue to chase.
Not thinking music was his lifeâs calling, he pursued the pro rodeo circuit. Cody started recording his own music during that phase of his life, beginning with Black And White Label, which featured his dad, Carl, on drums. Johnson sold the CDs, pressed on his own CoJo imprint, from his pickup.
Eventually, Cody took a job at the prison to pay the bills. His band kept hitting the clubs on the weekend, with Johnson kept banging away on the guitar on Fridays and Saturdays while overseeing some very hardened convicts whose crimes had cut them off from humanity.
Meanwhile, his weekend crowds began to grow, and Johnson started landing hits on the Texas music charts. After the release of his third album, he won New Male Vocalist of the Year in the Texas Regional Radio Music Awards.
With the support of his then, fiancĂŠe, he put his full effort into making it on the country music scene. After many sacrifices, hard work and employing the right songwriter, Cody broke onto the Billboard chart with âCowboy Like Meâ.
Which brings us back to today and the Cody Johnson who will be performing at the Tri-State Rodeo. In essence, Gotta Be Me (his newest project) documents the life of a guy whoâs lived in the fast lane as a beer-drinkinâ, rodeo-ridinâ cowboy, but whoâs also seen just enough darkness to temper that wild streak.
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.
âIâm a God-fearinâ, hard-workinâ, beer-drinkinâ, fightinâ, lovinâ cowboy from Texas,â he grins. âThatâs about it.
Multi-platinum, Grammy nominated band, Smash Mouth will grace the stage at the Tri-State Rodeo on Friday, September 8th. They will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut, smash-hit album âFush Yu Mangâ, released July 8th, 1997. Out of nowhere, the single âWalkinâ On The Sunâ was an immediate international sensation. (Quickly shooting to #1 on the Billboard charts, and eventually boosting âFYMâ sales to over 3 million copies in the U.S. alone.) In the two decades since, Smash Mouth has not slowed down. In fact, they are as vital and vibrant as ever.Smash Mouth didnât slow down after the success of âFYMâ, they racked up a string of top-ten hits, including âAll-Starâ, âThen The Morning Comesâ, and âCanât Get Enough Of You Babyâ with their follow-up album Astro Lounge which approached quadruple platinum.
Smash Mouthâs third, self-named album, features the jubilant first single âPacific Coast Partyâ and the smash hit âIâm a Believerâ. Around this time, Smash Mouth crosses over into the film world by providing the musical heart of the soundtrack for âShrekâ, and even making a cameo appearance in the movie âRat Raceâ. In recent years, Smash Mouth has focused on entertaining troops in such places as Japan, Guam, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
A look back at Smash Mouthâs formative years shows us a band determined to make an impact from the get-go. Formed in 1994, the band immediately begins recording demos and showcasing in both San Jose and Hollywood, CA. In June of 1997, Smash Mouth is signed to Interscope Records when label brass catch wind of an unknown (and unsigned) band being ADDED to highly influential LA radio station KROQâs playlist after only one spin (!) of their song âWalkinâ On The Sunâ.2017 will also see the band releasing a new album of all-original material. And though Iâm not allowed to divulge any detailsâŚlook forward to seeing a whole lot of Smash Mouth on your TV screen very soon. 2017 is already shaping up to be a banner year for the veteran San Jose rockers.
The Tri-State Rodeo is proud to welcome the Academy of Country Music 2017 New Male Vocalist of the Year, Jon Pardi. Pardiâs one-of-a-kind voice, his on-stage charisma and accessibility, his polished yet raucous sound, and his well-crafted and infectious songs will attract fans old and new.
His latest project, California Sunrise and only his second studio album, has gained Pardi hard fought recognition by the country music world. âHead Over Bootsâ â the first single from California Sunrise â became Pardiâs fastest-rising single to date, thanks to its buoyant melody and incessant optimism. Pulling from that same upbeat viewpoint, Sunrise makes multiple allusions to fashion through such titles as âHead Over Boots,â the bouncy âDirt On My Bootsâ and the suggestive âCowboy Hat.â Thereâs a workman-like ethic embedded in the sweaty âNight Shiftâ and the pounding âPaycheck.â And thereâs an innate sexiness throughout.Jon Pardi scores his second No. 1 single with âDirt On My Bootsâ topping the Billboard country radio airplay chart. ââHaving two back-to-back No. 1âs is unbelievable,â shares Pardi. âItâs been so great to have an album people believe in.âA natural storyteller, he writes what he knows, bringing it all together into a strong, cohesive musical statement. âI really donât have any negative songs,â he says. âIt always feels good with me so when you come to a show or listen to the record, youâre going to have a good time.âItâs not hard to see where the earliest seeds of Pardiâs approach lie. His musical journey began with a grandmother who loved classic country and had a karaoke machine in the house. Young Jon developed a special fondness for Hank Jr. and the two GeorgesâJones and Straitâalong with Alabama, Dwight Yoakam and Mark Chesnutt. He was just 7 when he sang âFriends in Low Placesâ for all he was worth at his dadâs 30th birthday party at a local Legion hall. âMy dad was a super-hard worker,â Pardi explains. âNow as a grown man I really appreciate that. The area Iâm from is really blue-collar, agricultural, everybodyâs working, everybodyâs doing something in construction, something in farming. Everybodyâs just working hard. When I go back, thereâs that pride there thatâs like this made me who I am.âPardi wasnât afraid to get his hands dirty, but he mostly wanted to wrap them around a guitar. He started writing songs by the age of 12 and was in his first band at 14. By 19, he knew Nashville was in his future. Once he arrived in Music City, there was more conventional work to keep him going â he was a lifeguard at a public pool for a time â but he found his way into Nashvilleâs songwriting community, where he applied some of the same skills heâd learned at his fatherâs dusty feet. Pardi is sure to please audiences of all ages with his throwback sound and his youthful flare with songs like, âUp all Nightâ, âHeartache on the Dance Floorâ and âCalifornia Sunriseâ.