Zach John King brings his debut-album year to the Dixie National Rodeo

The Georgia-born Sony Music Nashville singer headlines Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Mississippi Coliseum, and tickets for the 2027 rodeo are already moving.

Come February, the State Fairgrounds will smell like dirt, livestock and funnel cake again, and somewhere between the barrel racers and the bull riders, Zach John King will walk out under the Coliseum lights with a song about wanting to be country.

Zach John King headlines the Saturday, Feb. 13, 2027 performance of the Dixie National Rodeo at the Mississippi Coliseum. The official Dixie National schedule lists him for two shows that day, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson announced the 2027 entertainment lineup on Sept. 29 at the Mississippi Trade Mart, and tickets went on sale to the public Oct. 9. If you've been waiting for an on-sale date, it has already passed, so get your seats now.

The 2027 rodeo runs nine performances, Feb. 12–14 and Feb. 17–20, and each one is paired with a concert. King has the second night of the run. Braxton Keith opens on Feb. 12, Deana Carter has Feb. 14, and later in the week come Chris Janson on Feb. 18, Ole 60 on Feb. 19 and Emily Ann Roberts on Feb. 20. Among those, King and Janson are the names getting the most country-radio play right now, and King's is the Saturday.

He has had quite a year. King grew up in Fayetteville, Georgia, and moved to Nashville in 2021 to try country music full time. His breakthrough came in 2024 with "Wannabe Country," which landed on Spotify's big country playlists and led to a deal with Sony Music Nashville that same year. His first official country radio single, "Get to Drinkin'," came out Feb. 6, 2026, and Sony now calls it a top-20 country radio hit.

On Aug. 28, Sony Music Nashville released his debut album, I'm What You Get. It runs 20 tracks, which is a lot for a first record, and he co-produced it with Ryan Wilson. "Get to Drinkin'" is on it, and so is "Way to Go," a duet with Brooks & Dunn. Coverage of the album describes it as songs about the Georgia upbringing that shaped him, his marriage, and his father, John King, who died suddenly. King cancelled two weeks of shows after that loss, and he has said he only understood his father's influence after he was gone.

A 20-track debut about where he came from, played in a room built for rodeo.

The setting suits those songs. The Mississippi Coliseum opened in 1962 on the State Fairgrounds, and for generations of Jackson families the Dixie National is the one time each winter they're there. A rodeo crowd comes for the whole evening, not one song: the kids who came for the mutton busting and the grandparents who haven't missed a year all stay for the music. A plain-spoken country singer with a song about wanting to be country should go over well with a crowd like that.

If you want the Saturday, decide between the matinee and the night show early, because weekend dates usually go first. Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster and the Coliseum box office. Then plan on boots, a corny dog, and staying until the last chorus.

Sources: Dixie National Rodeo (official site) (dixienational.org); WLBT: Dixie National Rodeo announces 2027 entertainment lineup (wlbt.com); SuperTalk Mississippi: Entertainment lineup announced for 2027 Dixie National Rodeo (supertalk.fm); SuperTalk Mississippi: Tickets now available for 2027 Dixie National Rodeo (supertalk.fm); Ticketmaster: Dixie National Rodeo featuring Zach John King (ticketmaster.com); Sony Music: Zach John King – I'm What You Get debut album out (sonymusic.ca); Sony Music: Zach John King releases "Way To Go" with Brooks & Dunn (sonymusic.ca); MusicRow: Zach John King readies debut album for August (musicrow.com); Country Now: Country Next – Zach John King (countrynow.com); American Songwriter: Father's sudden death forces country singer to cancel upcoming shows (americansongwriter.com); Wikipedia: Mississippi Coliseum (en.wikipedia.org)