Country star George Canyon returns home for intimate tour

Almost 10 years have passed since Canadian country music star George Canyon burst onto the scene after becoming a finalist on Nashville Star.

Since then, Canyon has toured the country and the world, winning awards and acclaim along the way.

“It feels like yesterday in some ways, and in other ways it feels like a different lifetime ago, it really does,” says the Nova Scotia native. “Where my career has gone, where my life has gone, where God’s taken us and the blessings that he’s given us.”

Canyon doesn’t get home to Pictou County very often, but a new gospel album has brought him back for a springtime tour of Maritime churches.

He says faith and family have always been important to him, but he recently felt inspired to put his values front and centre.

“It was time to do a worship record,” he says. “It was time to stand up and not be a low-profile Christian anymore.”

As a result, he decided to do a small worship tour of the Maritimes, playing at a number of churches.

Canyon’s biggest fan - his mother - says her son has always been spiritual.

“This is what he was meant to do, other than his country music, but I’ve been waiting for this, and I’m not one bit surprised,” says Cheryl Lays.

Canyon says he isn’t preaching ring of fire and brimstone, and points out there is a message of morality in many of his previous songs.

“Those songs are all about having fun, but in the same breath, there’s a responsibility to them and a morality to them where that guy, the main character, who I see as myself, is being the designated driver, is being the guy that’s taking care of his buddies.”

Canyon will be performing at churches across the Maritimes until Easter as part of his worship tour and then it’s back to classic country as he begins a national tour.

A movie appearance is also in Canyon’s future; be sure to watch for the country star in the new Superman flick “Man of Steel” when it comes out in June. He says he will play an F-35 pilot and has eight lines.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh