Country Thunder Arizona is here. These are the 7 sets real music fans shouldn't miss

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article misstated when Country Thunder 2023 started.

Country Thunder returned to Canyon Moon Ranch on Thursday, April 13, for four days of music and fun in the desert sun near Florence, Arizona.

For those of you who haven't figured out which acts you really shouldn't blow off just to shotgun three or four more beers before swaggering in from the campgrounds, here's a look at this year's must-see artists.

There's a good chance almost everyone who reads this would've made a slightly different list. But we're not here to talk you out of seeing anyone. We're here to say, you really ought to think about adding these names to you list, from such obvious choices as headlining sets by Cody Johnson and Dierks Bentley to an afternoon set by Hailey Whitters and Jim Bachmann on the second stage.

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Ashley McBryde

This new-school country maverick is already dropping singles from the much-anticipated follow-up to last year's most inspired country album, "Lindeville." A concept album of character sketches set in a fictional small town, "Lindeville" doesn't waste any time grabbing listeners by the collar. Consider the opening line of the opening song: "Brenda put your bra on/ There's trouble next door/ Grab a pack of cigarettes and meet me on the porch/ Marvin baby mama 'bout to catch him with a whore." The entire album is riddled with vignettes as vivid as that first scene, from the dogs who see it all in "If These Dogs Could Talk" to "The Missed Connection Section of the Lindeville Gazette."

When: Friday, April 14 at 8 p.m.

Where: Main Stage

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Dierks Bentley

Dierks Bentley is always a good time, offsetting reflective songs as deeply felt as "Home" and "I Hold On" with such crowd-pleasing staples as "What Was I Thinkin'," "Sideways" and "Drunk on a Plane." As azcentral noted when the hometown hero last played Country Thunder in 2019, "Nine albums into his journey, the man is still shot gunning beers while demanding to know, 'Am I the only one who wants to wants to have fun tonight?'" He's now 10 albums into that journey, having recently released one of his strongest efforts yet, an album called "Gravel & Gold" that begins with a promise of "I got brand new strings, but baby, I'm the same old me."

When: Sunday, April 16 at 9 p.m.

Where: Main Stage

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Parker McCollum

The Academy of Country Music named Parker McCollum New Male Artist of the Year in 2022, by which point he'd already topped the Billboard country airplay chart with "Pretty Heart" and "To Be Loved By You." Both songs were featured on McCollum's first release after signing to MCA Nashville, "Gold Chain Cowboy," whose highlights range from those hit singles to the album-opening Americana vibe of "Wait Outside" and the melancholy balladry of "Dallas," a duet with Danielle Bradbery, who launched her career in 2013 with a win on "NBC's The Voice." A reviewer at Digital Journal said the album would "resonate well with both fans of neotraditional and modern country."

When: Saturday, April 15 at 8 p.m.

Where: Main Stage

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Hailey Whitters

This singer-songwriter picked up a well-deserved Song of the Year nomination at last year's Grammy Awards for "A Beautiful Noise," a song she co-wrote for Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile. That same year brought her latest album, "Raised," an introspective masterstroke inspired by her small-town roots in Shueyville, Iowa (pop. 731). Highlights range from "Raised," a wistful title track on which she sings, "I wear it proud like Mama's house or a Sunday dress," to "Boys Back Home," whose title characters she says will "pull you out of a ditch or a bar, and they won’t be caught dead in no electric car."

When: Saturday, April 15 at 3:30 p.m.

Where: Main Stage

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Jon Pardi

He's topped the country airplay chart four times since breaking through in 2012 with "Head Over Boots" and "Dirt on My Boots." His latest No. 1 is "Last Night Lonely," a single pulled from 2022's "Mr. Saturday Night," a neotraditional gem of an album on which the singer sets the scene with the country-soul balladry of the title track, where they call him by the title line but, as he reveals at the end of the chorus, "They don't know how much I missed her Saturday night." You see what he did there, right? That kind of wordplay used to be the hallmark of a country classic and it still sounds good to me.

When: Thursday, April 13 at 10 p.m.

Where: Main Stage

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Cody Johnson

He rode bulls on the rodeo circuit before making what probably felt like a perfectly natural transition into country music. When he opened for Miranda Lambert at the Coors Light Birds Nest in 2020, the Texan told the crowd, "My name is Cody Johnson and I stand for real country music." This is true. If you're the type that often finds yourself complaining that this dang new-fangled country doesn't sound like actual country, he's your boy (which may explain why last year's "Til You Can't" is Johnson's only country No. 1 to date). You can expect his set to be among the weekend's best.

When: Saturday, April 15 at 10 p.m.

Where: Main Stage

Jim Bachmann

You'll have to skip out on the end of Parmalee to catch this second-stage performance, but I'm pretty sure you'll find it worth your while. The formerly local troubadour is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma these days, making this set on the Copperhead Stage a bit of a homecoming gig. His latest album, "Sitting Down Under the Moon," is a perfect introduction to his catalog After setting the tone with the existential title track, he moves from strength to strength on such obvious highlights as "Hate to See You Go" (a bittersweet duet with Kayla Ray), the Dylanesque bluegrass gem "Good at a Bad Job" and the honky-tonk swagger of the saxophone-assisted "Paying Dues."

When: Thursday, April 13 at 7 p.m.

Where: Copperhead Stage

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Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 7 Country Thunder Arizona sets real music fans can't miss at 2023 fest