“When I heard the song ‘Banks Of The Trinity’ for the first time, it was like a portrait flashed in my head of memories I thought I’d forgotten.”
Cody Johnson shared those words with fans in April, when he announced his album “Banks of the Trinity.” The record came out in June, and one song from it has taken off ever since. On Friday, Nov. 6, he released a special acoustic version of that song, “Take Me Back (Leave Me There).”
Whiskey Riff counts about 63 million Spotify streams for the original. The new version swaps the electric guitar for a dobro, with Shelley Fairchild singing harmony. The outlet calls it a thank-you to the fans who made the song a hit online.
The timing works out nicely for him. Next Wednesday, Nov. 18, Cody is up for Entertainer of the Year at the 60th CMA Awards, and he is set to perform on the show. Last year the CMAs named him Male Vocalist of the Year.
If you only know him from the radio, Cody is the Texas singer behind “‘Til You Can’t” and “Dirt Cheap.” He was born and raised in Sebastopol, a tiny community in Trinity County in East Texas. In 2000, the Handbook of Texas counted about 120 people there.
“It just took me back home to Sebastopol, Texas, where I grew up on the Trinity River,” he said of the title song. “I had tears in my eyes when I heard it for the first time.”
He didn’t write that song. Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear did. It still hit him hard enough to name the album and pick out the cover photo.
Fans might have expected a cowboy shot. “Everybody thinks that I grew up on some big cattle ranch,” he told Country Now. His real childhood was simpler than that. “We grew up fishing and hunting for food.”
So the cover of his tenth studio album shows an old country store. “That’s why I chose a photo of Lawrence’s Grocery Store for the album cover,” Cody wrote on Instagram.
“It was just that little place in nowhere, Texas,” he told Country Now. The outlet reports the store belonged to Harold Lawrence, known around town as “Hootie,” and his wife, Lela.
Cody got there on two wheels. “As a kid, I used to ride my bike two miles down an old dirt road just to get a cream soda and a Blue Bell ice cream bar,” he wrote. Blue Bell is the ice cream from Brenham, Texas, that a lot of Texans grew up on.
He never rushed the visit. “While Ms. Lela was bagging up the groceries, I’d sit and listen to old men,” he told Country Now. According to the outlet, the men talked about the weather, the fishing and the cattle market.
Then came the best part of the trip. Ms. Lela had a soft spot for the boy on the bike. “She always gave me a free Bluebell ice cream bar and a cream soda,” Cody said.
So the treat he pedaled two miles for was usually on the house. He would ride back home with a basket of groceries, and Country Now reports he later baled hay and worked cows for “Mr. Hootie” himself.
Hear the title song that took Cody back to Sebastopol
This is the official visualizer for “Banks of the Trinity,” the song that brought the river and the little store back to him.
Hear Cody’s new acoustic “Take Me Back (Leave Me There)”
Here is the special edition he released on Friday, with the dobro out front.
“This record is my way of going back to those dirt roads,” Cody wrote when he shared the cover. Next Wednesday he goes for country music’s top prize with a picture of Lawrence’s Grocery on the front of his album, and he has made sure a lot of people now know Ms. Lela’s name.