Written by Darlene Altmann.
I was excited to be able to review George Canyon at the Sanderson Centre for the performing arts in Brantford Ontario on Thursday Sept 11 2014 for the very first show of his Canadian tour “Decade Of Hits Tour” with Rising Star award winner Jordan McIntosh as special guest.
The 29 date coast to coast Canadian tour is a look back at George’s musical influences and early years. His newly released album “Decade of Hits” celebrates 10 years of his hits from his Nashville Star days which he was a runner up on the hit TV show in 2004, to present including new songs “Slow Dance,” and “Crazy Love.”
At the beginning of the concert, before it even begun, George took to the stage and presented Mike Fuller from KX94.7 a George Canyon 10 years of hits plak mount, thanking KX country for supporting him and playing his music.
The concert was very unique as he interacted with his fans. In his first set, he took the audience through an acoustic musical journey of songs and artist that influenced him while growing up such as Heart of Gold, by fellow Canadian Neil Young and also of George’s favourite song “Let It Be” by The Beatles. Although George is celebrating 10 years of music, he has been playing music for 25 years.
His next set he called the “pub mode” where he spent many nights performing at pubs across the Maritimes where he would write his playlists on napkins, boy he sure has come a long way from the pub scene, from winning countless awards such as Single of the year for “My Name” in 2005, Entertainer of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards in 2006, along with Male Artist of the Year the same year at the CCMA’s and also has some acting under his belt, just to name a few.
George told the audience that one of his main influences growing up was the very talented Randy Travis and got the audience to sing along to the country classic”, Forever And Ever Amen!” He said he finally met his idol a few years back when they both performed at the Havelock Country Jamboree in Ontario.
The 3rd part of his set was to celebrate his rise to fame from Nashville Star in 2004 until present which he opened up with the famous “Ring Of Fire” The audience clapped and sang along!This song is very dear to him as he sang this song for the audition of Nashville Star which jump started his career! He sang his famous song “I’ll never Do Better Than You'” which he has fond memories of singing this song at the Grand ole Opry.
