Album Info

A Different Day

A Different Day

By Cody Johnson

Country - 2011

By the time Cody Johnson released A Different Day in 2011, the Texas native was already a rising star in... more

Tracklist

You may also like

About A Different Day

By the time Cody Johnson released A Different Day in 2011, the Texas native was already a rising star in his home state. He had two studio albums, a live album, and plenty of gigging under his belt, and a handful of tunes from 2009’s Six Strings One Dream had made a splash on local charts. But A Different Day generated just enough attention to set Johnson on the path to stardom he’s since walked; after winning New Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2011 Texas Regional Radio Music Awards, he quit his job as a field boss in the Texas prison system—where his father worked for over 30 years—and started pursuing music full-time. Fellow Texans George Strait and Willie Nelson, two of Johnson’s favorite artists, loom large in his brand of country and on A Different Day, which embraces the genre’s traditional roots along with some outlaw sentiment. The punchy “Guilty As Can Be”—a song in which the narrator sings about being locked up for killing a man who slept with his wife—is followed by the feel-good proposal song “Diamond In My Pocket,” which would eventually be certified Platinum. He also bemoans what’s become of his home state on “What’s Left of Texas?” He asserts his values and invokes one of his heroes: “Old Waylon would sure be mad as hell if he knew they’d cuffed old Willie for smoking weed.” The record’s heightened professional feel is, at least in part, thanks to the inaugural team-up with producer Trent Willmon, an accomplished musician who would go on to collaborate extensively with Johnson. On A Different Day’s final track, “The Grandpa Song,” the pair strip everything away but an acoustic guitar and Johnson’s gravelly voice as he wishes he could show his grandpa his life and get his thoughts on the country’s myriad social, political, and economic issues.