‘Catch of the Day’ – Cody Johnson – “With You I Am’ [VIDEO]

Today we focus on a singer and songwriter from Texas, who has found success on the Texas country charts, but is still looking for that first hit on the national charts.

Cody Johnson was raised in Sebastapol, TX and began playing guitar when he was twelve years old. Throughout his high school years, the hard work ethic he learned growing up on a farm was divided evenly between his music and competitive bull riding. Johnson started his first band while still a freshman, but didn't necessarily consider music his futer. After high school Cody headed to Angelina College in Lufkin, TX, but soon left to pursue pro rodeo. Johnson did well, but a broken right leg, left arm, two ribs and right collarbone convinced Cody that maybe his future lay elsewhere.

Johnson took a job with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, where he supervised prison inmates. But even though he took a "day job", he never lost focus on his music and at the age of 19, he had formed the Cody Johnson Band with Nathan Reedy on drums and his father Carl on bass guitar; together they recorded Cody's debut album, Black and White Label in 2006, self-producing and releasing the album on his CoJo label.

The following year, the trio added guitarist Matt Rogers and recorded the album Live and Rocking. Following the release of the album, Carl Johnson left the band to focus on the family farm.

In 2009 the group followed up the local success of the first two self-produced albums, by adding bass player Danny Salinas and releasing Six Strings and One Dream. It would become the first of Johnson's albums to reach the top-10 on the Texas Country albums chart, and would feature three singles, "Another Try", "Pretend" and "I'm Not Responsible", that reached the top-10 on the Texas Country singles chart. In 2011, Johnson would head into the studio with singer/songwriter Trent Willman to produce his next album, but not before winning the Texas Regional Music Award for New Male Vocalist of the Year. Johnson left his day job and devoted himself full-time to music, continually play across Texas on the club and bar circuit, where his rowdy, energetic, and passionate blend of country and rock earned him a strong reputation.

After adding Chris Whitten on fiddle and Jeff Smith on lead guitar (replacing Rogers) the band released the 2011 album A Different Day. The album again featured three top-10 singles, including Johnson's first number one on the Texas charts, "Guilty As Can Be". It was during the supporting tour for this album that the band changed its named (temporarily) to the Rockin' CJBs. The band's line-up now featured Reedy, Smith, fiddle player Jody Bartula and bassist Joey Pruski.

Johnson's fifth studio album, 2014's Cowboy Like Me, seemed to be his breakthrough in Nashville. The album featured the band line-up of Smith, Bartula, Pruski and drummer Miles Stone, and shocked the world when it sold more than 8,000 copies in its first week, landing it at #7 on the Billboard Country albums chart, #33 on the Hot 200 albums chart, both high water marks for Johnson. The album featured the #1 Texas hits "Me & Mine" and the album's title-track as well two more top-10 hits.

Johnson, the band and Willmon have gone back into the studio, emerging with new music for 2016. With a still unannounced release date, Gotta Be Me has spawned its first single, and its in our spotlight today. Cody Johnson and "With You I Am" is today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.