When planning a festival it’s easy to take for granted that everything will go as planned and that the entertainment and logistics will all fall into place. Booking a festival is already a difficult task, that task becomes even more difficult when something doesn’t go as planned. For the organizers of Festival Country Lotbinière the worst case scenario happened this year when tragedy struck for their headliner just a week before the crowds were set to arrive.
When news broke last Thursday that Granger Smith’s son had tragically lost his life there was little question that his appearance in Quebec would be cancelled, it was just a matter of time before his team made it official…the tour was, understandably, over. Festival organizers wasted no time in getting back to the drawing board and shortly after Granger’s cancellation was announced a second announcement followed telling country music fans that, Vancouver’s, Dallas Smith had “jumped back in” to take over Saturday’s headlining spot.
Dallas Smith of Default performs at Bud Gardens in London photo Kayla Winkworth
Default rocker, turned country music singer, songwriter, Dallas Smith took the leap into country music 7 years ago with his JUNO nominated album Jumped Right In. We’d say he never looked back but the draw of the rock world is a strong one and drew Dallas back to his roots for a tour with Default in which they opened for Stone Temple Pilots and Seether and limited co-headline dates with Age of Days.
As a country artist Dallas clearly found his groove and was quickly “Lifted” to the status of one of the top performing artists in Canadian country music. In just 7 years he’s had 12 singles go Gold and 2 go Platinum, 2 dozen CCMA nominations winning 4, 3 JUNO Award nominations winning 1. Dallas is the first Canadian artist in both the Nielsen BDS and Mediabase era, to have three consecutive #1 singles from the same album (Side Effects) he’s the only Canadian male Country artist to have FOUR #1 singles (Wastin’ Gas, Autograph, Side Effects, Sky Stays This Blue). No “Slow Rollin'” for Dallas either, this spring he released his latest EP The Fall and this fall he and friends Dean Brody, Chad Brownlee and Mackenzie Porter are going to be “Wastin’ Gas” as they hit the road on the “Friends Don’t Let Friends” Tour Alone Tour.
Dallas Smith – Side Effects Tour 2017 – Photo: Kayla Winkworth
If you thought the previous years at Lotbinière were hot just wait until Saturday night when Dallas Smith bring St-Agapit to it’s “Tippin’ Point”! If you’re lookin’ forward to your grandmother’s country music on Saturday I’m afraid you’ll just be “Wasting Your Time” because the party is going to be in Quebec this weekend!
Don’t forget for all the updates all weekend long be sure to follow our socials and you can catch full coverage on our website at the official event page: https://www.soundcheckentertainment.ca/countrylotbiniere/ want to get into the festival groove on your way to Quebec from Ontario? Checkout our official event playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0lb517KKgwrmhfWuEOnpuY, it’s so good you might be able to listen to it twice…or course if you get bored of that you can head over to our profile and checkout some of our other playlists like our Girl Power playlist featuring some of the best female artists in the business: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/72XhnB0oWq5MuePBiapYNX!
If you’re looking for tickets for the weekend you better hurry because only limited amounts remain…you can get yours at https://countrylotbiniere.com
