Cody Johnson's 2026 Album, ‘Banks of the Trinity’: Everything We Know So Far

After teasing us across social media, Cody Johnson has finally announced his brand new album, Banks of the Trinity, with the lead single, ‘I Want You’, dropping at midnight. The full album will be released on June 26th, 2026.

The project is named after the major river in Johnson's childhood home of Trinity County, suggesting the record will see the 2024 CMA Album of the Year winner in a nostalgic mood.

We don't have the full tracklist for Banks of the Trinity yet, but we're expecting CoJo's recent single, ‘Blame Texas’, to appear. Although it only dropped a couple of weeks ago, we're not sure his Merle Haggard cover, ‘Footlights’, will appear on this project. The title-track, co-written by Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear, has also been confirmed as featuring, along with many more never-heard-before offerings such as ‘Thank Somebody Country’ and ‘Time Bomb’.

Johnson suggested back in 2023 that he was working on a covers album called The Cowboy Sessions, and when he teased that project, it sounded like it was already mostly completed, with the Texas native listing a bunch of artists he'd covered on it. We suspect ’Footlights’ will be featuring on that long-teased project instead.

As for Banks of the Trinity, there are - excitingly - two already-confirmed collaborations on the project, with Johnson revealing to Katie Neal earlier in 2026 that he has cut a duet with Luke Combs. He also shared that he has a collaboration with Brothers Osborne on the new album, with Johnson explaining that he's returning the favour by appearing on the Southern Rock duo's next project.

Interestingly, it seems we can look forward to a studio album that pushes boundaries sonically for Johnson, with the ‘Human’ singer-songwriter hinting elsewhere in his conversation with Neal that it will be partly “stone cold country”, and partly an amalgamation of more left-field textures from Motown, Rock and Bluegrass. He went on to state that, at that time, he had 20 songs that he was trying to whittle down to 16, teasing, “There's gonna be some cool surprises on here”.

Now, Johnson has been talking about recording a Gospel album for some time now, and the title Banks of the Trinity certainly feels like it could lend itself to a faith-based record. Johnson also teamed up with Contemporary Christian Music hitmaker, Brandon Lake, on the soulful ‘When a Cowboy Prays’ a few weeks ago. However, judging by ‘I Want You’ and ‘Blame Texas’, it doesn't feel like this is going to be his Gospel project - but we're sure there will be spiritually-minded themes on there, nonetheless, as these are pivotal to Johnson's songwriting.

When talking to Neal, Johnson admitted he was feeling the pressure after winning CMA Album of the Year for Leather, with the former rodeo competitor underlining that he wants to ensure his next chapter feels like an improvement on his last era. It's worth highlighting that, up until this point, the rollout has felt a little low-key and understated, with ‘Blame Texas’ dropping on a random Monday, for instance, rather than the standard Friday. But now, with the arrival of ‘I Want You’ and the official album announcement, it seems like things are finally heating up...

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