Friday, April 23 — Riley Green's Night
Friday is Riley Green's first turn as a Stagecoach headliner. The Jacksonville, Alabama native played quarterback at Jacksonville State and built an audience on independent releases before "There Was This Girl" became his breakout No. 1, and "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" went triple platinum. His newest album, That's Just Me (September 2026), brings in Brooks & Dunn and Alabama's Randy Owen as guests. If you like modern country with the old furniture left in, this is your night.
The strongest majors pull in opposite directions. HARDY wrote Blake Shelton's No. 1 "God's Country," made a full rock record in Quit!!, then swung back with COUNTRY! COUNTRY! in 2025, and his sets run both ways. Cody Jinks is the counterweight: a former Fort Worth thrash-band frontman who became one of country's biggest independent draws on his own Late August Records. Brothers Osborne arrive with Watertown, out October 2026 and their first album with featured guests. One of them, Stephen Wilson Jr., plays Saturday.
Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" tied what was then the Hot 100 record with 19 weeks at No. 1, but his July 2026 album is the more interesting listen: The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales, a revenge Western that runs continuously through every song. Dylan Gossett's double-platinum "Coal" started as TikTok snippets he finished at home. And STELLA LEFTY comes in on a fast year: her debut, Long Way Home, opened at No. 1 on Spotify's global album chart in August 2026, and "Boston" became her first No. 1 at country radio a month later.
Kaitlin Butts (Country, Undercard) — the Tulsa-born singer makes albums that work like stage musicals. Roadrunner! reworked Oklahoma!, and Hello, Honky Tonk (October 2026) borrows its shape from Chicago, each song a character from a night at the bar.
Two 2000s-era names on Friday's undercard bring new material. Gretchen Wilson, whose "Redneck Woman" spent six weeks at No. 1 in 2004, is re-recording that debut album with a guest on each track. Jo Dee Messina released Bridges, her first studio album in 12 years, in June 2026. The outside pick is Wade Forster, a Queensland cattle-station cowboy and former rodeo rider who won Male Artist of the Year at Australia's 2026 Golden Guitars.
Saturday, April 24 — Zach Top's Night
Saturday has the weekend's most traditional center, and there's a neat way to see it. When the Recording Academy handed out its first Grammy for Best Traditional Country Album in February 2026, Zach Top won it for Ain't In It For My Health, beating a field that included Charley Crockett and Willie Nelson. All three play Saturday. Top grew up playing in a band with his siblings in Sunnyside, Washington, and his producer, Carson Chamberlain, once led Keith Whitley's band. He played the Palomino stage here in 2024; this time he's headlining.
Nelson will be 93. At Stagecoach 2024 he closed on "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" with ERNEST, Jelly Roll and Crockett crowding the stage, and Mickey Raphael has played harmonica in the Family band since 1973. Crockett, a San Benito, Texas songwriter and former street performer, put out 14 albums independently before Island signed him; his 2026 album Clovis, cut at the Norman Petty Studio in New Mexico, was pulled from streaming when they split and reissued through Atlantic Outpost.
Stephen Wilson Jr. calls his sound "Death Cab for Country," indie rock and grunge pushed into country by a former scientist who was up for CMA New Artist of the Year in 2025. DASHA's "Austin (Boots Stop Workin')" comes with a line dance she made up herself, and plenty of the crowd will know the steps.
Saturday is also the weekend's rock day. Journey, led by founding guitarist Neal Schon with Arnel Pineda singing, are on the Final Frontier Tour, billed as a farewell. The Fray return as a trio, guitarist Joe King now singing lead on A Light That Waits, their first album since Isaac Slade left.
Tedeschi Trucks Band (Rock, Undercard) — a 12-piece blues, soul and rock band led by married guitarists Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, with a Best Blues Album Grammy and a new album, Future Soul, from March 2026. The undercard tier undersells them badly.
Two more Saturday sets come from outside the Nashville pipeline. Gustavo Mioto sings sertanejo, Brazil's own country music, and his "Com ou Sem Mim" was among Brazil's biggest songs of 2020. Maoli, from upcountry Maui, spent nearly 15 years as an island-reggae draw before turning to Nashville-made country.
Sunday, April 25 — Garth Brooks Closes
Garth Brooks closes Stagecoach nine years after he last did it. His 2018 Sunday set was his first dedicated festival headline, and by Whiskey Riff's count he hasn't headlined a major festival since. The Country Music Hall of Famer made Ropin' the Wind the first country album to debut at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, in 1991. If you want to cram, note that his catalog isn't on Spotify; Amazon Music has been its exclusive streaming home since 2016.
Kelly Clarkson plays the same night, and she's less of a crossover booking than she looks. The Fort Worth native recut "Because of You" with Reba McEntire, a No. 2 country hit, and sang on Jason Aldean's "Don't You Wanna Stay," which topped Hot Country Songs in 2011. She's friends with Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, Taste of Country noted, though no duet has been announced.
Carín León is the Sunday set we'd least want to miss. On the Palomino stage in 2024 he became the first música mexicana singer to play Stagecoach, a full banda behind him, tuba and accordion included. He has won back-to-back Grammys for Best Música Mexicana Album and recorded "The One" with Kane Brown. Turnpike Troubadours, the Oklahoma Red Dirt six-piece, came back from a 2019 hiatus; their latest, The Price of Admission, was a 2025 surprise release whose rehab song "Be Here" is the one to wait for.
The rest of Sunday's majors are straight crossover: Pitbull, with two Hot 100 No. 1s in "Give Me Everything" and "Timber," and Matchbox Twenty, whose 1996 debut went Diamond on "Push" and "3AM." In the undercard, David Lee Roth has been touring again since ending his retirement in May 2025, with sets that are nearly all Van Halen.
Melissa Etheridge (Rock, Undercard) — RISE, out March 2026, is her first full set of new songs since 2019, co-produced by Shooter Jennings, with Chris Stapleton co-writing and singing on "The Other Side of Blue."
Hudson Westbrook was raised on George Strait and Turnpike Troubadours, among others, and "House Again" made him the youngest solo male to top country radio with a debut single, at 21. ERNEST has co-written 13 No. 1s by his own count, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen's "I Had Some Help" among them, and released his third album, Deep Blue, in May 2026.
Late Night on Mustang
Three acts already have stage assignments, all on Late Night on Mustang. Friday it's Sean Paul, whose four Hot 100 No. 1s run from "Get Busy" to Sia's "Cheap Thrills." Saturday is Florida Georgia Line, reunited after pausing the duo in 2022; it's their first officially announced full show since, and their first Indio set since headlining in 2018. Sunday it's Flo Rida, whose T-Pain collaboration "Low" held No. 1 on the Hot 100 for ten weeks. Diplo's HonkyTonk, also on the poster, is an activity area rather than a stage.
The Bottom Line
Until set times arrive, pick a lane for each day. Friday is the most current bill, with Green, Shaboozey, STELLA LEFTY and Brothers Osborne all bringing 2026 albums. Saturday holds the traditional core, Top, Nelson and Crockett, plus the rock bookings. Sunday has the biggest names, with Carín León and Turnpike Troubadours as the sets we'd build around.
Start with the full lineup and star what you want, so the schedule builder can place it once times are posted. Then try our undercard picks, the genre guide, or the first-timer's guide.