Stoney’s Rockin’ Country has always been the place where you’ll catch the country music stars of tomorrow, while you’re having a good time tonight. And as rodeo week winds down this weekend, it will be the place to catch a rising star who’s never set foot in Las Vegas before.
“We’re trying to add some more shows out that way in the spring, at least I’m hoping for that, but Stoney’s is going to be a good kickoff to intro us out west,” says Cody Hibbard, a native of Adair, Oklahoma, and a former pipeline worker.
He hasn’t done Vegas, but he has attended the National Finals Rodeo, when it took a pandemic-era turn to Texas. “NFR is special. It came to Fort Worth that year when Vegas wasn’t quite open yet, and that was my first NFR. I’ve always gone to the rodeo since I was a kid and enjoyed watching it and just the true cowboy aspect. I’m ready to be out there and just excited.”
Hibbard fell into music less than five years ago when hangout singalongs with a guitar and friends evolved into writing songs and playing bar gigs. He released his first single “Half Whiskey, Half Lonely” in September 2019 and his first EP, Memory and a Dirt Road, the following January.
His unassuming style, rich voice and relatable lyrics and melodies are an easy sell, as Vegas will see very soon. Hibbard’s career so far may be equally defined by how he looks and how he sounds, and how both elements set him apart.
“It is a rarity, being Asian in country music,” he says. “It’s not the norm and I think it’s helped me out in my career. I think it’s kinda funny and that’s the way it started out, as a joke—you don’t look the way you sound. But if it gets people to listen or leads people to finding my music, whatever led me to this point, I embrace it.”
Hibbard says he gets messages from different kinds of people—like many artists do—explaining how his songs about varied issues have had positive effects on their lives. But he also hears from fans who relate to who he is and appreciate what he’s doing with his music.
“I’ve got a lot of messages saying, ‘I was in my shell about liking country music,’ or being country … and you’ve inspired me to embrace it,’” he says. “Sometimes that’s the only reason I’m doing music, because I get messages like that all the time, that my music helps or my story helps. I could care less about money and fame, and I was actually making a lot more working in the oil fields. But it makes me feel like I’m making a difference.”
After all is said and done, in country or any genre, it always comes down to the music. Hibbard is a confident artist because he’s a confident person, one who was worked hard and earned success. And if he’s going to become a country music superstar, he’s only going to get there on the strength of his music, and how people connect to it.
“No matter what you look like, if you go to the CMAs and see everybody who’s big onstage, they all have distinguishing features. There’s a million dudes who dress like Cody Johnson, especially during NFR—a white dude with a cowboy hat, starched jeans, a button-up and boots. What sets him apart is his story, and his voice,” Hibbard says. “That dude can sing all day. There’s something different about him than the next guy down the road. I happen to be an Asian guy with a redneck accent, which gives me a different factor, but it doesn’t put me ahead.
“And that’s where my story comes in, the guy who was adopted and worked on his family’s farm and went to the Naval Academy and started pipelining for nine years, a guy who was blue collar and started out in music with true country morals.”
CODY HIBBARD December 16, 10 p.m., $15. Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, stoneysrockincountry.com.
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