
WILLIAMSBURG— Canaan Smith recalls a childhood spent running through the backroads of Toano.
“We moved to Williamsburg when I was three. We lived right on the edge of where Williamsburg becomes Toano. It was such a perfect town to grow up in. I just remember having the world by the tail it felt like as a kid. I could spend all day outside because our houses were far enough apart that you had space but close enough that you could have fun. We’d just play in the woods, going crazy with go-carts and motorcycles in the backyard,” Smith said.
When Smith turned 11, he began to notice an itch to play an instrument. Having seen his father play in a local band, he would frequently attend rehearsals. He dove in headfirst, writing his own music as he watched his father play.
“I had friends who were also really into music at the time. For the age that we were, we took it pretty serious. We skipped sports on the weekends a lot of times to just have band practice in somebody’s garage,” Smith said.
Smith graduated from Lafayette High School in 2001. He attended James Madison University for a year, but ultimately decided that his next stop needed to be the country music mecca. He enrolled at Belmont University and headed to Tennessee.
“Nothing excited me more than the studio life and chasing a dream as a songwriter. During my freshman year as I was writing songs and working out what I had to say as a writer, it became pretty clear that country music was speaking to me the most. Nashville was the mecca for that,” Smith said.
A young Smith moved to Nashville in 2005. Even now, having been in Nashville for 20 years, it’s something that Smith won’t ever take for granted.
“Some of the rooms I’ve been in and the songs that have been born here are incredible. To be able to work on my craft and hone it all this time, it’s been such an incredible ride,” Smith said.
From touring with some of the top names in the country music industry to hearing his own songs on the radio, Smith won’t forget his big break.

“I wrote a song for a group called Love and Theft. When their first single hit radio, it was a top 10. That was my first cut as a writer so it was really cool. It got me a publishing deal. But then I started dancing between whether I was just a songwriter or if I was going to make a run as an artist. The answer was yes to both. I’m a songwriter at heart but I’m also an artist that has things he wants to say,” Smith says.
In 2015, Smith released his first album, titled “Bronco,” which sold just under 40,000 copies. Even with all his success, he still felt lost.
“The music machine can swallow you up if you don’t know who you are or what your boundaries are. You can kind of resent it pretty quick. I had to walk away from that original record deal willingly, and I had a great team but I just wasn’t happy. I kept finding my creativity being stifled by my unhappiness and I really didn’t have much to say or much that excited me. I knew it was time to reset,” Smith said.
He took time to gather his thoughts but kept writing music. After stacking up some songs, Smith signed another record deal and released his second album, “High Country Sound,” in 2021. After another break, Smith is now gearing up for his newest album release, “Chickahominy.”
“Chickahominy” is a record that showcases Smith’s roots. The full-length album is Smith’s first independent release. The name of the record itself has special meaning to Smith.
“I had to acknowledge my roots in Williamsburg. Chickahominy is the river where my dad took us all cat-fishing on. It was always seen as the more dangerous river, that’s where all the parties were. The river had a mystique to it and it conjures up feelings even when I think about it now. I really tried to pay tribute to my roots on this record,” Smith said.
Smith’s love for music remains to this day, and for him, it’s no competition.
“The goal is not to win, the goal is to be true. Instead of pandering for what you think might work, writing from a point of view where you have something to say, something that you care about, something that is meaningful, or just a creative expression. That should be what you do over anything in my book and it’s way more fulfilling. It’s not the ticket sales, it’s not the accolades, it’s all about the music,” Smith said.
Chickahominy drops on all streaming platforms on Jan. 24. For more information on Smith, visit canaansmith.com.