Dallas Smith: from Default to the top of Canadian country

Ask Dallas Smith why so many country singers end up in Langley and he’ll blame the water. That was his line to CBC in March 2025, when he and fellow Langley resident Tyler Joe Miller were both up for the same Juno. He also pointed to the old slogan about Langley being where city meets country, which, for a rock singer who became a country star, fits rather well.

He wasn’t born here. Wikipedia gives his birthplace as New Westminster, and that’s how CBC described him at the 2025 CCMAs. But the Langley papers have claimed him for years: “Langley’s very own” in the Aldergrove Star, “Langley-based” in the Advance Times, and Langley as his “hometown” in more than one story. In 2025 CBC confirmed the simple version: he lives in Langley.

The rock years

Smith’s career started in 1999 as the singer of Default, a Vancouver rock band. Their first album, The Fallout, came out in 2001, and the next year Default won the Juno for best new group. The band made four albums in eight years, and CBC notes Smith always said he loved country and that “a good song is a good song.”

The country years, in order

• 2012. First solo album, Jumped Right In. “Wastin’ Gas” becomes his first No. 1 on the Canada Country chart.
• 2014. Tippin’ Point EP and the album Lifted. At that fall’s BC Country Music Association awards he won entertainer, male vocalist, single and album of the year, according to the Advance Times.
• 2015. Lifted wins the Juno for country album of the year.
• 2016. Side Effects. The Advance Times lists him with six BCCMA nominations and his friend and neighbour Chad Brownlee close behind.
• 2019 to 2021. Three straight CCMA entertainer of the year awards. In 2021 in Calgary he also took male artist and single of the year for “Like a Man.” (In 2019 he and Brownlee pulled their names from BCCMA consideration, the Advance Times reported.)
• 2019. The Fall EP, which Wikipedia says produced four No. 1s in a row.
• 2020. Timeless.
• 2023. The self-titled Dallas Smith album, later nominated for album of the year at the 2024 CCMAs and country album at the 2025 Junos. That summer he made his Grand Ole Opry debut.
• 2025. A 52-date tour, then, according to his label, a step back from the road to focus on family and studio work. That fall he played a run of unplugged shows, with Langley’s Brock Phillips opening.
• 2026. “Leave Me Like a Backroad,” a duet with Phillips, released August 10 on Big Loud and Local Hay Records.

By August 2026, Big Loud counted 14 No. 1 singles at Canadian country radio, 21 gold and nine platinum singles, four gold and two platinum albums, and more than 748 million streams. Wikipedia describes his No. 1 tally as a record for a Canadian male country artist.

At home

The Langley ties go past an address. Smith was on the bill at the very first Gone Country in 2013, when the Ruscheinski twins asked him and Aaron Pritchett to help them turn a backyard fundraiser into a concert. He came back to close the tenth and final Cloverdale show in 2024, the year organisers reported $1,456,000 raised. The festival has since moved to Jamestown.

His charity, Lifted: The Dallas Smith Charitable Foundation, focuses on mental wellness. In March 2022 it gave $25,000 to Encompass Support Services Society for Foundry Langley, a youth health and social services centre for 12- to 24-year-olds; the Aldergrove Star reported the gift took the project to 70% of its $2.1 million goal. Wikipedia also records a Boys of Fall charity golf tournament at Redwoods Golf Course in August 2013.

Where to follow

His official site has tour dates and releases. For the wider scene he’s part of, see musicians from Langley.

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