Album Review – Cody Johnson’s “Banks of the Trinity”

Country (#500), Country Pop (#532), and Traditional Country (#510) on the Country DDS.

Cody Johnson has ascended the country music mountaintop, and as an artist that started as a grassroots outsider and regional performer from Texas with a more traditional sound and style. Even to this day, Johnson only receives tacit support from corporate country radio. But when the ACM Awards convened in May, they couldn’t help but recognize Cody as their coveted Entertainer of the Year.

It’s not just the energetic shows he puts on and the crowds he draws. It’s also all the intangibles Cody brings to the table that other performers who might be more popular just can’t boast. Cody Johnson isn’t just a more traditional-leaning performer for a more traditional-leaning time in country music. His form of inspirational country and his clean cut presentation has touched a serious nerve and found an elevated level of appeal with audiences all around the United States and beyond.

Now having won the genre’s topmost prize (even if it’s from the genre’s 2nd-tier awards compared to the CMAs), Cody takes incredible momentum, expectations, and responsibilities into the release of his latest album, Banks of the Trinity, named for the triple forking river that rolls through north Texas and down into the eastern part of the state before emptying into the gulf. Don’t think of a mighty river like the Cumberland or Mississip. In dry conditions, the Trinity is little more than a shit crick. At certain turns, you can jump across it.

Nonetheless, the Trinity’s waters feed multiple reservoirs, and influence the landscape in the coastal plain of Texas. But instead of Banks of the Trinity feeling like a deeply personal work, it feels like an album full of trial balloons to see of Cody can finally break through at country radio beyond his handful of hard fought #1s. Even though its produced once again by the usually reliably-country Trent Willmon, it finds Cody exploring much more contemporary, radio-friendly sounds as opposed to sticking to the more traditional sound his fans have become accustomed to.

Cody Johnson has never been much of a writer. Yet like one of his heroes George Strait, Johnson has been a hell of a song picker. But so many of the lyrical hooks on this album are so shallow, they set only skin deep. Even the inspiring nature of Cody Johnson’s music is only evident in fleeting moments. The same goes for anything that feels personal to Johnson himself. Instead you get a curious amount of R&B-style love songs, and list lyricism indicative of Bro Country.

Banks of the Trinity is not a bad record by any stretch of the imagination, and there are certainly some strong offerings from the 16 tracks that will likely go on to become iconic in the Cody Johnson catalog, including the title song. But the album is a bit curious in its overall approach and outcome. Some mainstream country performers these days are rising to the “more country” moment and really experiencing a major boost. Others like Lainey Wilson and Jon Pardi who like Cody Johnson started in that “more country” world have strangely decided to start playing it more safe, or branching out.

Where Cody Johnson’s last two albums Human (2021) and Leather (2023) surprised you at multiple turns with the depth of songwriting and the attention to twang, Banks of the Trinity surprises you with the angling for mainstream acceptance from a guy that already received it in the most demonstrative ways with an ACM Entertainer of the Year win. There are some good songs here. But considering it as an album, it feels a bit weak.

Cody Johnson did not win Entertainer of the Year from being the most popular artist in country. He won it for being the most country of the most popular artists, and the most authentic. Will Banks of the Trinity with its perhaps more “accessible” sound to markets adjacent to country take him to the next level? That feels like the hope for it. But it could also illustrate a peak since instead of leading country music in one of its most country eras, Cody is now following other Entertainer of the Year winners like Lainey Wilson and Luke Combs into a more sensible and safe version of the music overall.

6.7/10


Stream/purchase Banks for the Trinity .

Song Reviews:

1. “Horseback”

With different production, this could be a tractor rap song. Sure, this is an energetic and engaging track to suck you into the rest of the record. But the lyrical hook is very weak, simply relying on the difference between “horse back” and “horseback” as opposed to trying to leverage a true double entendre. Cody might have been better served by leading off with the title track, and then trying to make the rest of the album more personal to that theme.

2. “Hello Lonesome”

From a musical standpoint, this is arguably the best track on the album. Super traditional yet immediately infectious, it’s shows off the best qualities of Cody Johnson as a mainstream country traditionalist. The writing isn’t exceptional, but solid. Why we didn’t get more songs like this is curious.

3. “Fool Proof”

One of the best up-tempo songs on the album, the energy and rhythmic infectiousness pull you in, while the prominent fiddle keeps it country enough. You can tell Cody and Brothers Osborne had fun cutting this otherwise cautionary drinking song.

4. “Take Me Back (Leave Me There)”

This song sung by Chris Stapleton would be one of those tracks that he knocks out of the park, and makes you not care that it’s not really country. But it’s Cody Johnson singing. And even though Cody does a good job with it, you still wonder why an R&B-style song like this made it on the album, and what the point of it is beyond being a play for country or AAA radio.

5. “Banks Of The Trinity”

The title track is one of the best of the album, and could have set a better mood and perspective for the work as a more cohesive expression if it wasn’t more isolated in its theme from the rest of the songs, save for the final track on the album “Yippy Ty Oh Hey Hey.” Nonetheless, “Banks Of The Trinity” does give some personal touch to the record, even if it wasn’t written by Johnson himself.

6. “I Want You”

Not a bad song at all, but one that hits on the recurring theme of Cody trying to land a lyrical hook, but just not having any gusto behind it thanks to weak songwriting. The title is actually the hook too, delivered naked, as if it will resonate deeply, which it might with a passive audience. But there’s nothing clever, novel, or unique here. It’s just a nondescript average love song.

7. “I Have”

It takes you seven songs into this album to find one of those inspiring efforts from Cody Johnson like the ones he’s defined his career with. But “I Have” is no “‘Til You Can’t” or “The Fall.” It’s hampered in part by the programmed drums that start it off and emerge at other times in the song, along with an overall more rock than country approach. The song also doesn’t really go to an inspiring place like it wants to. All that said, Cody Johnson really does the best with what he’s dealt with the song, and turns in one of the album’s best performances.

8. “Bible For A Boy (For Jaycee)”

You can tell this was a song written by five songwriters in the way the plot sometimes gets lost, and the verses and rhymes implode on themselves in the end. Though you don’t want to downplay the sentiment, this song just comes across more as pandering than personal, despite the song being named after one of Cody’s kids (yet Cody didn’t contribute any writing to the song).

9. “Kissing A Married Woman”

This is another song where you figure out the plot twist before it reveals itself, and so the whole premise of the song sort of falls flat. It’s like the network TV version of trying to be a clever song, but has to make everything patently obvious to appeal to a wide audience as opposed to trying to hide the plot twist beyond the first chorus. Similar to other songs on the album, “Kissing A Married Woman” feels more pop rock than country, salvaged somewhat by a sometimes present fiddle.

10. “Every Man”

This is what you want from a Cody Johnson song. “Every Man” features good writing that’s still easy to digest, reflective, even a little vulnerable, with steel guitar setting the mood, not rock guitar. It still might not be anything more than a solid album cut, but it’s the kind of material Cody Johnson should lean into, because he does it so well and it’s become his signature. “Every Man” is written by Drew Kennedy, Gordie Sampson, and Travis Meadows.

11. “Motel Miss You”

This is one of the album’s better tracks, a little bit offbeat and silly in a good way, despite the Splitsville storyline. The instrumentation picks up on the playful spirit of the song and plays along. This is probably not a signature song from Cody Johnson or something you’ll hear in concert. But it gives the album some good texture.

12. “Shoot The Bull”

Cody Johnson and Luke Combs try to put together their own version of “The Conversation,” with the two exchanging info about Texas vs. North Carolina. A lot of good energy and attitude is captured in the song, but once again the hook presented in the chorus just isn’t something that lands. So you’re just sitting in a bar shooing the bull? What’s remarkable or interesting about that? The numerous songs with shallow, nondescript lyricism add up on this album.

13. “Cricket On A Hook”

This is a list-tastic Bro-Country song, only rendered with more traditional country instrumentation. Instead of speaking to the trials and tribulation of the day, this song tells the audience to ignore them and just go fishing. Maybe it’s a “fun” song, and there’s nothing wrong with a few of those on a record. But “Cricket On A Hook” feels like one fun song too many, and one that could have offered something more than empty calories.

14. “Time Bomb”

This is Banks of the Trinity‘s second Chris Stapleton-inspired R&B/country soul track. Cody Johnson really knocks it out of the park, and shows off his pipes. But you’re still left wondering what the point of this song is, let alone two of them on this record. Cody Johnson is supposed to be the guy bringing country back. One R&B song gives the album some spice. Two feels self-indulgent, especially when you don’t get more of the type of songs you crave from Johnson.

15. “Thank Somebody Country”

This is one of those songs that gets you pumping your fist, even if it works in the realm of cliche—and despite the title, carries more rock influence than country. Similar to “Bible For a Boy,” there a little signaling and pandering going on here. But this track isn’t as much “bad” as it is as forgettable similar to too many of the tracks on this record.

16. “Yippy Ty Oh Hey Hey”

It shouldn’t be surprising that one of the best-written and most personal songs on the album is the only solo-write, and the only song written by Cody Johnson himself. On this acoustic solo track, Cody goes into his familial history, weaving in references to the Trinity River. This is the theme that needed to be presented earlier in the album, and then attempted to have more songs than just two reference it to create an more cohesive and personal work. Don’t let the rest of the album hold this track back though. It just illustrates what this album could have been with just a little more personal effort from Cody.


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