Canaan Smith is a renowned Country music singer-songwriter celebrated for his heartfelt lyrics and his ability to seamlessly blend contemporary and classic country sounds. Rising to fame with his 2015 No. 1 hit single ‘Love You Like That,' Smith showcased his storytelling prowess on his debut album ‘Bronco' earning praise for his emotional connection to listeners.
Over the years, he has cemented his place in Nashville as both a performer and songwriter, penning tracks for artists like Cole Swindell, Cody Johnson, and Tyler Hubbard. Smith’s dynamic live performances have taken him on tours with Florida Georgia Line and Dierks Bentley, where he’s built a devoted fanbase. His 2021 album, ‘High Country Sound,' highlighted his love for blending traditional and modern influences, a style further enriched on his latest earthy and authentic record ‘Chickahominy,' a 12-song journey that reflects his passion for storytelling and his own life experiences. Our review of ‘Chickahominy' can be found here and we were thrilled to catch up with Canaan to talk all about it.
Thanks for your time today, Canaan, it's always a pleasure catching up with you but it's extra special to be talking about your new album, ‘Chickahominy.'
It's all good, I'm thankful for your time buddy. It feels so good to have a complete body of work out in the world that says something and that has some really thought provoking songs on it. I'm so proud of it. I'm just trying to stay in the flow of the music and be a vessel for god and for his plan for my life.
Everything about this album just flowed out of me as if it were planned. Even the sequencing of it came easily – I did one attempt which didn't feel quite right but then on the second try it all fell into place. I was led to that moment, for sure. This whole project has been god, in his time, helping me put this together.
Tell me more about what ‘Chickahominy' means and why you chose it as the title for the album.
Well, the Chickahominy is one of the few rivers that run through my hometown. It had a mystique to it, it was a little bit elusive and bordered the side of town where a little bit of trouble came from. Often times, the wrong crowd could be found hanging out there so it occupied this space in my mind, as a kid, that was intriguing.
When I was old enough to drive there and make my own choices, I'd hang out there, skinny dip, smoke tobacco pipes and explore stuff there that I hadn't see yet. When I'm putting music together, at this stage in my career now, pulling from the parts of me that were most influential, ‘Chickahominy' felt like a corner stone in my life, even the name is intriguing, it's the name of a native American tribe from that part of Virginia. It's a tribute to where I came from and what values and characteristics coming from there instilled in me.
The first three songs on the album sort of harken back to your youth, telling the story of you growing up to become the man you are today.
They do, yeah, 100% although I would say that '18, Stoned and Stupid' is more a reflection of me now than it was back then! (laughing) It took me a while, I was pretty straight-laced as a young teen! That song is a reflection of how I still feel forever young and how I love to have fun and take life not too seriously.
The other two songs, the title track and ‘Ain't Much to Write Home About,' I definitely thought of my home town but I also thought about North Vernon, Indiana, which is where my mom was from and where I was born. I lived there for the first three years of my life. We would visit my grandparents there from Virginia every summer to vacation and see family so that town has all the character of ‘Ain't Much to Write Home About' and the secrets and the struggles. I'm not shaming the town and the people, I'm embracing the chaos and the imperfections, which is what I'm trying to do as a person and an artist.
‘Ain't Much to Write Home About' screams radio-hit to me. What are your commercial goals and aspirations with this project?
That song is the focus track for the streaming services – you have to pick one and it can't be a previously released track. If the DSPs need to be served a song, that's the one that feels like it could give us a win. I love singing that song, sign me up, I'm so proud of it and it's so true of what I know of the people and the towns that have impacted me. It's a win-win because I am creatively proud of that song but it also feels like something that could shine a light on the rest of the album too.
Which song on the album was the easiest to write and which song took the longest to get it to where you wanted it to be?
That's such a great question. I honestly think this batch of songs…… I can't remember having to toil over them at all. There was some grind and head scratching on how to the land the hook of ‘Ain't Much to Write Home About' – that took a minute. We knew what the goal was, it just took us a moment to land it in a powerful way. That's proof that this project was from within, you know? Natural. We didn't intend these songs to be ‘Nashville' songs if you know what I mean?
The hardest thing about the whole process has been me not overthinking the results! (laughing)
‘No Mercy' fascinates me in terms of both the power of the lyrics and the sonics.
The narrator is me and it's me talking to God as a journey on route to my destination. It's me asking him if I will ever get to the end of the journey and see the shore. It's like a journeyman's prayer – surely God didn't just lead me all this way to end up at the barren shoals that I mention in the song? I don't believe God to be an entity that would lead my whole life for me to end up with nothing, right? He's always provided before, the bounty that he has, so this song didn't feel anything but honest when I was writing it.
It's a song about having to trust what you can't see and that's a tough thing to do, to have blind faith in the journey. There are going to be moments of weakness and moments of doubt – that is the story of my life – I've yet to arrive at the barren shoals even though the journey has felt like I might be heading that way sometimes.
In terms of that struggle and asking those honest questions, have you ever considered walking away from the music industry in the ten years since you released ‘Bronco'?
Oh yeah! (laughing) I've thought about it many, many times. My wife has been such a voice of reason for me and such a rock that has helped me to come back to centre. It's a really hard business to be in and it changes all the time so even when you do have success it can be fleeting and transitory, especially as an independent artist – it can offer high hopes that lead to disappointment a lot of times.
For me, my goal in this whole project, I have thrown away a lot of normal expectations artists have. You won't find a measuring stick – I'm not gonna try and measure the impact of the album, it's more for me. Sure, I hope it puts gas in my tank and I hope it keeps me on the road, right? But I haven't set out to try and compete with it and there's some freedom in that, there has to be otherwise I'm going to be disappointed.
All I know to do is what I can do with my own power and talent and try to write songs that feel thought provoking and honest and then I'm going to leave the rest up to God, that's where I am right now.
Did you have to leave out any songs that you loved because they didn't fit the very strong narrative and cohesive theme that you have on the album?
Those are the 11 songs I picked from day one! There was never one scratched from the list and there was never one added in at the last minute, it has been those songs from day one that I decided to do this project with Anthony Olympia.
Talking of Anthony, he's one half of Country duo Everette, who we love over here in the UK. You wrote ‘Bad News' with them. What vibe was going on in the room on the day you wrote that song?
I've written for Everette over the past couple of years, three or four songs for them, and so that day they were, like, ‘you wanna write one for you today?' They asked me how I was doing, which was an honest question and I felt like they deserved an honest answer! (laughing) I told them, as a dad and as someone who had tragedy as a kid after losing my brother to a car accident, I can't help but have a deep rooted fear of thinking about the worst case scenarios sometimes. I pray against it all the time and I speak truth against it all the time too but it's still there and I wanted to sing about that.
They loved the idea and we wrote the song very quickly because it was so super honest. In the studio I knew that without some redemption at the end of the song there wouldn't be a lot of hope to be found in it and I wanted there to be some glimmer of hope inside of the really heavy topic. So I prayed, out loud, one time only in the studio. From the heart over the mic, I spoke about my kids, my fears and addressed it like a one on one conversation. It felt really liberating to do that in that moment.
This year will be the tenth anniversary of your ‘Bronco' album. Do you look back on the guy that made that album and not recognise him or is he still there inside you?
He's still there – 100% he's still there for a song like ‘Bronco' for sure. There's a lot of younger me that was trying to be in the cool crowd and chase a sound that I thought would work for my label in 2015 as well. I had a lot of experience and I had a lot to say back then but I don't think I was quite ready to be able to say it meaningfully.
Now I feel like an adult who has nothing to lose – I don't! I don't have a record deal to lose or a team's expectations to also have to meet. (laughing) That kid is still there and I still love the process of making music, I'm more energised than ever before because I think I'm now working in a place of enlightenment and truth. Music is now an expression of me rather than the starting point of ‘how can I make a living from music?'
Those paradoxes of creativity vs commercialism must be at war inside you all the time?
Totally! You can't help it. When you move to Nashville to get a record deal and get a publishing deal and make a living writing songs you are at war with it all the time. If your end goal is just to write music as an expression it doesn't always coincide with commercial success. I've found more creativity writing music as an expression rather than a commercial goal and have found more fulfillment along the way.
I'm still writing songs for other artists – I've got a song I wrote for Tyler Hubbard at number 34 on the charts right now – that feels super awesome as a songwriter. I would have never recorded that song myself because it's not where I am in my life right now and it doesn't have a message that fits with the album I have just released but I love that I have the outlet to do that now as an independent artist. I feel like I am just getting started as a writer and I want to go deeper and deeper. I want to really free myself as both a writer and an artist.
A twenty year old kid comes up to you after one of your shows and tells you that they are moving to Nashville to be songwriter. What advice would you give them?
Good luck and stay true to who you are. I would also say try to be fearless because I think the whole name of the game as a writer and an artist is to try and be fearless and it's not easy remembering that. It's not easy to do it in a writing room full of other people or in a studio surrounded by other people, all who might have different aspirations and goals to you.
Fearlessness. I wish I could have told my younger self that. Look at Chase Rice – he's now making great music, I love that guy. All of it was there all the time but he just needed to be more fearless about it. Less chasing and more listening to what's within, we are both on a very similar path.
Check out Canaan Smith's new album, Chickahominy, which is out TODAY in all the usual places. It's a rewarding, empowering listen that will take you on a journey of truth, just like it has done for Canaan.
