George
Canyon keeping busy spreading holiday cheer via tour, TV special
Angela Pacienza
Canadian Press
Wednesday,
November 23, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - When George Canyon was 10 years old his parents
gave him an electric guitar for Christmas.
He
loved it dearly, using it to play songs like Johnny Cash's Folsom
Prison Blues. Canyon recounts the story onstage during his current
tour, Home For Christmas, a sentimental concert series taking
him to cities big and small. "It's fun. We're having a blast,"
he said over the line from Winnipeg during a rehearsal earlier
this week.
"I'm
having a lot of flashbacks. I'm remembering Christmases that
I'd completely forgotten of when I was a kid."
A
family man, Canyon wanted to set up the tour so audience members
would feel as though they were sitting in a friend's living
room rather than attending a country music concert.
"We're
trying to create what I used to do when I was young," said
the 35-year-old Nova Scotia-native, who now resides at a ranch
south of Calgary.
"We'd
visit friends and family ... at Christmas and visit and tell
stories and play songs and make eggnog."
The
tour coincides with George Canyon's Christmas, a TV special airing
Friday on Country Music Television that also features former NHLer
Doug Gilmour and singer Julie Roberts.
As
well, Canyon has released a mini-album of carols, also called
Home for Christmas.
Canyon
says he's feeling especially festive this holiday season because
his past year's successes means he can finally afford to take
most of January off to spend time with his wife and two young
children.
Two
short years ago few people outside Pictou County, N.S. - population
4,000 - had ever heard the name George Canyon. Then came Nashville
Star, a televised singing competition in 2004 which made him
a household name among country fans on both sides of the border.
He'd been trying for a music break for 14 years.
He
quickly followed his second-place finish with an album, One
Good Friend. On top of being certified gold this year, the CD
has earned the velvet-voiced singer 13 awards, including four
at the Canadian Country Music Awards, in 2005.
He's
sold out shows, opened for superstar Tim McGraw, and, perhaps
best of all, played the Grand Old Opry eight times in 2005 -
including one September night with Loretta Lynn.
"I'm
still just like a kid in the candy store," said Canyon
of playing at the mother church of country music.
"If
they make me a member, I'll try to be there every weekend!"
And
while Canyon is a country boy at heart, he still loves to strap
on his electric guitar now and again to play tunes outside his
genre.
He's
even chatted about doing "something" with a certain
high school buddy who's now the frontman of INXS.
"I
talked to J.D. (Fortune) the other day . . . he was talking
about wanting to do something with me this coming summer,"
explained Canyon.
"I
have no idea what INXS and George Canyon would be able to do.
It'd be funny to see. It'd be a blast."
As
far fetched as it sounds, it's happened before. The two were
school mates in Pictou, a small town on the Northumberland shore
of Nova Scotia, and performed together in several musicals including
a production of Grease.
"J.D.
was John Travolta's part Danny and I was Johnny Casino,"
recalled Canyon with a chuckle.
Pondering
the idea a little more, Canyon adds: "Wonder what kind
of a crowd we'd get?"
Canyon's
Christmas tour hits Richmond, B.C. on Nov. 26, Thunder Bay,
Ont. on Nov. 28. From there he moves to the East Coast. The
tour wraps up in Duncan, B.C., on Dec. 21.
