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August
5, 2007
Downhome
cowboy charms the crowd
Jennifer Fong, The Edmonton Journal
FESTIVAL REVIEW
George
Canyon
Bruce Edwards, the Journal
Big
Valley Jamboree
CAMROSE
- Everybody loves a hometown hero.
And
George Canyon, the Nova Scotia-bred Albertan (he now lives in
Okotoks), fits the bill perfectly.
Fans
braved the cold and packed the concert bowl for his mainstage
performance as the sun set Saturday.
Even
before Canyon bounded on stage, festival-goers were jumping
and cheering the second his five-piece backup band struck up
the first few chords of Somebody Wrote Love, the title track
of his last album, a Juno winner released a year ago.
They
only got louder when Canyon himself hit the stage, pointed his
cowboy hat to the crowd and yelled, "How ya feelin', Camrose!"
It's
hard to believe Canyon, who got his big break in 2004 after
competing and placing second on CMT's American Idol knock-off
Nashville Star, is a singer still on the rise. He has all the
style, charisma and talent of a veteran performer.
Dressed
in a white shirt and ripped jeans, with a cross around his neck,
Canyon was the epitome of a down-home cowboy. The ladies went
wild for the handsome 38-year-old as he sang about love and
dedicated a ballad to his wife.
Between
songs, he shared stories about growing up in the Maritimes and
told jokes about getting older.
The
crowd lapped it up.
But
the truly adorable moment came when he called up two little
girls from the crowd who wore pink raincoats and held a homemade
yellow poster that read "George Canyon -- You're Awesome."
"Isn't
that cute?" he cooed.
Moving
through a selection of songs from his last four albums, Canyon
played a lively hour-long set that also included a heartfelt
tribute to Johnny Cash. Canyon's voice was dead-on emulating
the Man In Black on Walk the Line and Ring of Fire, which got
fans clapping and singing along.
Bubbles
from TV's Trailer Park Boys, who made a cameo in a Canyon music
video, also made a cameo at the Jamboree to introduce Canyon's
last number, Drinkin' Thinkin' -- a song these festival-goers
could no doubt relate to.
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