The Stagecoach Country Music Festival wrapped up its first day with headliner Cody Johnson taking full control of the Mane Stage on Friday, April 24.
Johnson seemed to recognize that he had the spotlight and he wasn’t going to let the moment go to waste. The country star’s set included tidbits of reminiscing about the early days of his career, when he’d sell CDs outside rodeos, but also took a moment to show his appreciation for diversity, speaking about his experience walking through the campgrounds and seeing people from all walks of life.
Culturally, country music spaces can be coded conservatively for their themes centered on faith and patriotism, but Johnson asks listeners and fans to dig deeper than that surface-level assumption and stereotype. His vision for a more united country is one where diversity is something to be proud of and baked into patriotism.
He performed songs such as “Human,” “The Fall,” and “Til You Can’t,” all of which let his voice shine, and, like most headlining sets, had surprise guests, though the secret may have been too obscure for the younger crowd. It seemed like fans thought he was going to bring out Carrie Underwood, but she only appeared via music video for “I’m Gonna Love You.”
The special guests, instead, were the vocal harmony group Boyz II Men, who joined Johnson to perform a new rendition of their 1994 ballad “On Bended Knee.” The performance and rendition were great, but it did seem to come out of left field for the country music festival fanbase, who may have rather prefered Brooks & Dunn, who are also going to be performing this weekend or perhaps Luke Combs.
Just a few hours before, during golden hour as the sun began to set, Ella Langley delivered one of the most buzzed-about performances, drawing large crowds to the Mane Stage. While she brought in many women of all ages, including a few young girls, she was also popular with the guys. Several men walked around with shirts with the words “Ella Fella” on them throughout the festival, leading up to her set.
Langley opened with “Dandelion,” the title track from her latest album, and told the crowd she would be playing mostly music from that release. One of the songs in the set included her new collaboration, “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” with Morgen Wallen, and before any country fan could get too excited about him coming out as a surprise guest, she shut it down, saying he was on “dad duty” and would not be joining.
Langley performed other hits such as “You Look Like You Love Me,” one of Langley’s songs in collaboration with Riley Green, who is also part of this year’s festival lineup, which would be the perfect opportunity for the two to collaborate, right? Well, that’s not what happened.
Instead, she welcomed comedian, podcaster and social media star Theo Von, who performed the duet with her. Although her set was shorter than some of the headliner acts, Langley seems to be headed to that top headliner spot sooner rather than later, and the fans can’t seem to wait.
Other special guests throughout the day included Billy Ray Cyrus and Braison Cyrus, who joined Noah Cyrus in the fan-packed Toyota Music Den. Then, of course, there was Emo Nite.
For those unfamiliar with Emo Nite, it consists of Morgan Reed and T.J. Petracca, a pair of DJs who mix EDM with emo and alternative music to create a nostalgic wave of dance music that is more catered to the sad, alt., all-black-dressed crowd. The duo’s performance took place in Diplo’s Honkytonk, where most of the EDM is housed, along with the younger crowd who want a little bit more than line dancing.
Emo Nite’s set featured Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Going Down” followed by several remixes of Panic! At the Disco, All-American Rejects, Paramore, and My Chemical Romance. It also featured some stuff that wasn’t so emo, like “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers and Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”
The nostalgia went into overdrive when the surprise guests, electropop duo 3OH!3, appeared onstage as Woody from “Toy Story” and sang favorites like “My First Kiss” and “Don’t Trust Me,” which had fans screaming the lyrics and shaping their hands in the group’s “303” sign made by holding up three fingers (typically the index, middle, and ring finger or thumb, index, and middle) to represent the Colorado area code 303.
To close out the set, Emo Nite welcomed Ashlee Simpson, who performed “La La” and “Pieces of Me” from her 2004 debut album “Autobiography” to a crowd that was anticipating her performance. Simpson hasn’t been in the spotlight much since her last album, “Bittersweet World,” released in 2008, but she was recently revealed as the winner of the 14th season of “The Masked Singer.” In an interview with Billboard earlier this month, she told the outlet that new music is on the horizon. Her Emo Nite country crossover debut is perhaps Simpson becoming even more comfortable in the spotlight once more.