'23 Country Thunder features returning headliners, newcomers

In 2017, Jon Pardi opened for headliner and Arizona native Dierks Bentley at Country Thunder.

On Thursday, April 13, Pardi graduates to headliner to open the four-day country music festival in Florence.

Bentley is also on the 2023 lineup, headlining the closing night on Sunday, April 16.

The festival includes the return of Luke Bryan (“Country Girl,” “Kickin’ Boots,” “That’s My Kind of Night”) to the headlining roster and the debut of Texas country star Cody Johnson.

Pardi has arguably the strongest opening lineup, with Midland, whose lead singer Mark Wystrach hails from Sonoita and graduated high school in Tucson; veteran North Carolina band Parmalee (“Take My Name,” “Musta Had a Good Time,” “Girl in Mine”); 1990s neo-trad country singer Tracy Byrd (“Watermelon Crawl,” “Don’t Take Her She’s All I Got,” “I’m From the Country”); and Shane Proffit, whose first single “How It Oughta Be” made it to No. 19 on the charts.

Bryan's show at 10 p.m. Friday, April 14, caps a day that will include rising newcomer Ashley McBryde (“One Night Standards,” “Never Wanted to Be That”), the legendary pop-country band Lonestar and newcomer Nate Smith (“I Found You”), who became TikTok famous with his song “Wildfire” in 2020 and landed a major-label deal that culminates April 28 with the release of his eponymous debut album on Arista Nashville.

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Friday opens with singer-songwriter MacKenzie Carpenter, whose debut album is expected to drop later this year, and Canadian country singer Josh Ross.

Johnson, who headlines Saturday, April 15, had a modest hit with his rocker “Me and My Kind” in 2014 before making a national splash with his 2019 album “Ain’t Nothin’ to it,” which topped the U.S. album charts. His 2021 followup “Human: The Double Album” with the hit “’Til You Can’t” made him a hit among millennials.

He shares the Saturday lineup with the 2022 Academy of Country Music’s Male Artist of the Year Parker McCollum (“To Be Loved by You”); fellow Texans Jackson Dean and Randall King; Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters; and Canadian country duo The Reklaws.

Bentley, who grew up in Scottsdale, returns to Country Thunder as headliner for the first time since he topped the lineup in 2019. Kip Moore (“Somethin’ ’Bout a Truck,” “She’s Mine”) opens the show, following a lineup that includes newcomers Bailey Zimmerman (“Rock and a Hard Place”) and Chase Matthews (“The Way I Am”) and singer-songwriter John Morgan, who might slip in a song or two that he’s written for Jason Aldean (“Trouble With a Heartbreak,” “If I didn’t Love You”) with songs he’s written for himself (“Right in the Middle,” “Coldest Beer in Town”).

Country Thunder is located at 20585 E. Water Way in Florence. Gates open at 9 a.m. daily, and the concert bowl, with the big stage and roped-off reserved seating area, opens at 1 p.m. daily. Tickets are $150 a day, $300 for a four-day general admission pass through country thunder.com/az-tickets; reserved seats are sold out.