Miles Canyon: Burn It Down

In this episode, host Chris Glass sits down with Miles Canyon, a songwriter who traded the metal scene of Saskatoon for the "Wild West" opportunity of Airdrie, Alberta. Miles is a story weaver of the highest order—a man whose transition from metal to modern country was fueled by COVID, a Nashville guitar, and a mission of honesty.

Miles discusses his unique "Nashville guitar" that you can't drop a pick inside, the story of how he followed a woman to Airdrie and found a community, and the incredible moment his music reached the ears of Willie Nelson. From the dark depths of "Burn It Down" to the lighthearted love of "Me, Myself and the Walleye," this conversation explores why Airdrie has become a hotbed for world-class musical talent.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Oh it's it's an awesome place. Like when when I was in Saskatchewan uh it was Saskatoon was just getting worse and worse and worse. And I'm like, ah, I'm kinda done with this the city life. Yeah. So I I I love Crossfield. It's it's great. Yeah. And then coming, you know, Airdrie's so close. The music music community here is great.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Airdrie Inside. I am here at Micro Acres once again for another show. Microacres uh creates such great microgreens. You should check them out. Uh make sure you find them and buy them and support them because they're a huge supporter of our show. Uh, they've given us their space all the time, and I really appreciate that. I am so excited about my next guest. We were just listening to you warm up and not even warm up. You took your guitar out of the case, sang great. Uh, Miles Canyon, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Chris.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Now, Miles, uh, you were just telling me off camera that Saskatoon used to be home.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

So uh give me a little bit about your history.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Oh, it's uh I've been in the music biz my whole life. Yeah. And uh I didn't start out in country music. I I actually started off in metal. Okay. And and then evolved into uh like funk rock bands, but we're always kind of like whatever genre we wanted to be, yeah. So yeah, it I don't know. It just over COVID I started writing country songs. Actually, me and my guitar player we had a few drinks one night and we're just kind of goofing around and wrote a song. We're like, wow, this is this is a country song. So and I had actually never listened to much modern country before.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

So you say modern country, did you listen to old country?

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Okay, because I think that was the golden age of country music, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

And you know, I love Willie and I love Whalen, and uh, you know, Kenny Rogers and and Dolly and all that stuff, but uh the newer stuff I never really listened to. And then we wrote a country song, started listening to the radio, and we're like, oh, this is kind of similar to what we just did. And it turns out it was a hell of a lot of fun to write country songs. So we just started over COVID, I think, just kind of writing a bunch of songs. Next thing you know, we're in the studio recording them, and next thing you know, I'm performing them. And I wasn't even planning on being a country artist at all. And here you are. I I'm truly about just uh first and foremost, I'm a writer than anything.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

But you know, uh, one of my favorite artists, uh for somebody my age, it's weird to say, but it was my dad's favorite artist, and that's kind of how it gets handed down. But Chris Christofferson was one of my favorite artists to ever see, and I'm sad that I can't see him in concert again. I I saw him a couple of times before he passed away. But uh, as far as a songwriter goes, yeah, the lyrics were just unbelievable. They're so specific and they put you right in that moment. There's something about old country that puts you right where that feeling, that emotion, that energy is.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

So, okay, so you started out in metal. So I what were your influences back then?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

So I'm a huge Thin Lizzie fan.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

So yeah, a lot of like Thin Lizzie influence, and then you know, motorhead and uh good old Lemmy. Yeah, good old Lemmy, stuff like that. And I still blast out heavy stuff every once in a while. And all my electric guitars are angry at me though. Yeah. It's like it's this thing is the only thing that ever leaves the house anymore.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Now, this guitar has to be talked about because it has some history to it, I think. Yeah, looking at it. So tell me about tell me about what we have here because it looks amazing.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

This is a Nashville guitar, and uh I I love that I can't drop a pick inside of it. It's great. And uh yeah, it's it's from Mexico actually, and uh I've been in love with it ever since. And it's it's seen some days and and it's been beat up and dragged through the mud a few times, but uh missing some frets and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

So what brought you to the Erdry area?

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Oh, I followed a woman here. Oh, okay. I never thought I would be in Albertan. I I I really uh and I should have done it ages ago. Like it's yeah, she was gonna kick me to the curb if I didn't uh come out this way. Yeah, and then and then when I moved here, I was like, uh, I don't know if I'll follow through with being an artist. It's scary. You don't you like in Saskatchewan everybody, I know all the musicians, they all know me. We're we're a community. Yeah, you built it. And then I'm going to a place of strangers, and I'm like, I don't know how the scene's gonna be, I don't know what it's gonna be like. And and then uh before I moved to or to Crossfield, I was uh just hitting some of the open mics in Air Tree here. And uh that I was like, oh wow, there's there's some great people here, and everybody was really supportive, made friends almost instantaneously.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So you know, since we've been doing the show, we've had a bunch of musical guests on, and we're actually and you you're gonna be a part of our uh celebration on uh June the 6th coming up. Uh and that started because we had such great artists come through uh the show and uh we thought what a great way to showcase some of the talent that we have. But I am blown away by the musical talent in this area. Oh, absolutely. You know, it is it is growing, everybody's supporting each other, and it just seems like a real great hotbed for artists here in Alberta.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Absolutely, yeah. And you see the difference, like well, like I was just saying, I just came from BC. Yeah, and they're complaining about oh, we barely have any places to play shows. I mean, like, this is Vancouver, you got what, four million people here? There must be tons of places. And then you look at Airdrie, and Airdrie's got what, like 10 venues you can play at, and yeah, and and then Calgary and and Edmonton, it's like it's just so many gigs out here. It's you know, every small town's got a rodeo.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so you mentioned Whalen and Willie are influences. Uh who else has influenced you in in your musical journey here?

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Oh, it's everybody. Yeah, it's everything from like Fleetwood Mac to uh to Bob Seeger to Leonard Skinner to it's it's all over the map.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Man, you you hit two on the head there for me with Fleetwood Mac and Bob Seeger. I I think Dreams is one of the best songs I've ever had.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Oh, rumors is one of the most brilliant albums on the planet. Like talk about a musical journey of like you just hear the angst and and the the conflict going on between those couples.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Uh what's that one song? Uh Silver Springs?

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Uh where uh she's literally yelling at Lindsay Buckingham on stage and he has to sit there and play through his breakup song. Oh yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Well, on the chain. Brilliant song. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Brilliant song. Uh speaking of songs, uh, I see that you have your guitar. I'd love to hear a song. Sure. I I I want to kind of break it up and have you play a couple if that's okay. But uh after how you warmed up, I'm I'm anxious to hear what you have for me.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

All right. I I don't know what to play. I didn't make a plan. Oh, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Um wherever your heart takes you here.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Well, quite often. Well, lately, because I'm in love and moved, you know. So I write a lot of love songs. Oh, good, good, good. Used to be a lot of dark songs, some I don't know. Smoky. Yeah. Yeah, some maybe I'll do uh I'll start dark and maybe get bring it into love. Okay. So uh yeah, when I write, uh quite often I'll I'll I'll tap into things that I've been through, or even uh people that I know are around me, stuff like that. So tap into that emotion and uh yeah, this this is one of those songs about uh dealing with loss, I guess. And uh yeah, it's called Burn It Down.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

I got took to the jailhouse, said I ain't done no good. I told them if I could do it again, you damn sure no I would. So go ahead and book me this small castle moving on I could see the cop card seven miles away. I stay up there drinking whiskey I belong to a week. Couldn't drink away a memory in the swamp with a long I can fall off true I can still see your fence in that corner That's gonna be real my nuts and when you That's why too bad When they look to my pocket they had to let me go I showed them the title of the spot that I know Use them all of the cabby when we put you in the crack close to the handle that's why it's burnt down that was fantastic Thank you and Arson has made an appearance on the show that's a a first yeah that's fantastic So did you burn down a house?

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Is this Well there's no bar in Crossfield No No, I didn't burn the bar down, but uh you know it just kind of that's about just a man who's really down and he just doesn't know what to do to get over the loss of yeah so do you find writing therapeutic absolutely yeah it's writing like it's all about the song for me when I when I get inspiration I drop everything it's there it's like there's this radio that I can faintly hear and and showing me songs that don't exist yet, and then as soon as it comes in. And I'm like, okay, dial it in. It's like, oh, there it is, I gotta stop everything, drop it, write. I don't have half-written songs, it's everything gets finished, and I can't function until it's done.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

How long does it take you to write a song?

SPEAKER_02 12:24

It's usually usually I'll come up with an an idea, I'll jot it all down, get all my ideas kind of lined up, and then the next morning I'll come in with a fresh brain and put it all together and use under 24 hours.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Because there's two types, right? There's the type that uh writes it as quickly as you do, and then there's types that are constantly iterating and constantly trying to perfect and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Well, I have ideas that sat around. Like I wrote a song about Willie Nelson, and uh it was it sat for two years, and I'm like, oh, I gotta write a song about Willie Nelson. And uh and yeah, eventually it hit me with the right piece of music and the right moment, and I'm like, okay, there it is. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

I think uh Willie Nelson writes or sings one of I think the greatest songs ever, or right up there with You're Always on My Mind. I've heard a million covers of that song, and nobody can sing it like that man.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Yeah, he's he's distinct.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah, it's it's very, very cool. Uh so let's talk a little bit about the scene here uh in Alberta and Airdrie. You said it was different from Saskatchewan, but uh what makes it so different?

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Oh, there's a lot that's different. Uh like in Saskatchewan, we don't have session musicians, it's it's their actual bands. And I know there's a lot of the hired gun stuff here, which is incredible. That whole world is really different to me. Yeah. And there's a lot of, you know, you see writing sessions and stuff like that. Uh and uh and just like I said before, there's just so many gigs. There's so much so many musicians too, though. Like yeah, it's a big pool. It is a big, much larger pool than there is in Saskatchewan. So you you can see it when you go to the SCMAs and uh and uh CMABs. Yeah, it's a big different crowd.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, I I like like I said, the talent level and just the I've seen it grow so much in my time here in Airdrie alone, but before we had maybe one or two artists that would uh be notable uh outside of the city, and now I think we're looking at award winners almost everywhere across the across the thing.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

I think Kyle McCurdy's from here, isn't he? Yes, he is, yes. Brown and Lorenzo. Yes, yeah, there's there's lots of great musicians that are coming out of here.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

So it's neat to see everybody breaking through. It's it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Well, and and for me, it's fun because like like I said, I I knew everybody in Saskatchewan, so you know all their tricks. Every time you see you can see. So now I come here and I'm like, oh yeah, just getting wowed. Like you mentioned Celine there earlier. Yeah. Holy smokes. I just she wows me. So Celine So many artists wow me.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Celine was on the show, and uh she sang a song about uh cheating, but she sang it from the mistress's point of view. Oh, yeah. And it was a very angry song, very, very good song. But through the whole song, she made eye contact with me, like she was singing it right at me, and I was so uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Intense.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

And I said to her afterwards, I'm like, like you made me uncomfortable. She goes, Yeah, I do that at my show. Like, I'll pick one guy in the audience and I will make him feel the hatred of that song. Wow. But yeah, just incredibly talented. And and actually after her her episode was when we came up with the idea to do the music festival, uh, because we're like, there's so many cool musicians, we want to kind of put them in one spot and highlight it and and find a way to get everybody some cash and get paid for for the work they do.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

So yeah, well, I know all those musicians on that line up there. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Yeah, it's gonna be really cool. And uh, we can't thank you enough for agreeing to play on it. Uh, what else do you have for me?

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Um, I can give you the Willie Nelson song.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

It's uh this one's it's funny because uh my idea for that song originally came because I come across a buddy of mine in from Saskatchewan uh in the LM the one day, and he's like, Oh, we should do a writing session together. I'm like, Yeah, let's get together next weekend. And then he gives me a shout on the Thursday or whatever, and he's like, I can't make it. I got called in to uh go play Willie Nelson's uh 90th birthday at the Hollywood Bowl. Right. I'm like, well, okay, fine. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Are you sure you want to do that over this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Yeah, so then it got me to thinking about Willie, and I'm like, geez, he's the the longest running, he's the longest touring, he's the oldest touring musician alive. Absolutely. And he's a legend, and yeah, I just like I wanted to write a song about him and and kind of tell that. And then it's funny, I've I did wrote write the song, and it's a song about if the end of the world ever came, there'd be nothing left but the cockroaches and Willie Nelson. And it's called Roaches and Willie. So uh so my buddy, who originally um I was recording the song in the studio, and I call up my buddy, and he's a guitar player, and I'm like, Well, it'd be awesome if you could play on this. He's like, Man, I'm like driving up Willie Nelson's driveway right now. I could show this to him. Oh wow. And I'm like, yeah, that'd be awesome, great. So yeah, he brought it in and showed it to Willie, and he put a smile on Willie's face, and that's uh I could die. I could die now, yeah. You're putting a smile on Willie's face is the best thing that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Roaches and Willie. Roaches and Willie, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:36

Came a man that you don't mess with since he came to Tennessee. I called him Reddit Stranger, some people called him Bashot gun. Him and that gun are always loaded, he's a stranger to know why. Even if this creepy balls up in smoke, if everything went to the ground, there it goes human being.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

It still be the road is a willing.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

With the triggering his fingers, he picked out his underroad. Yeah, that I'm a country singer, sure ain't me like that no more. Oh will he ain't going nowhere, cause they only make one, and the last man that be standing is the man in Calcutta. Under comedy somehow, he'll still be on the road. Even if this creepy bow goes up in smoke, if everything burned to the ground, there ain't no human beings.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

The roach is wheeling.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

That was fantastic. I was uh I just got back from Nashville, Tennessee, as we were talking about off the camera, and it was at Tootsie's bar, uh the bar where Willie Nelson would play all the time. Awesome. And uh you it's uh you see pictures of him everywhere, and like the writing on the the tables are all like 50 years old kind of thing. It's just crazy.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Smell the cigarettes smoke on the walls. I can't smoke there anymore, but it still smells like smoking. It still smells like smoke.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

You still feel the ghosts and you feel the history. Uh yeah, that's great. That's great. Willie Nelson, uh man. My parents used to sing all of those songs to me when I was a kid. Yeah. Like Willie Wayland Merle, like just crazy. So this is really hitting a spot for me. So I'm a huge fan of country music. Um what's next for you? Like So let's talk uh let's talk about some of your accolades and where what's next for you.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Well uh for accolades, well I didn't know. Well Willie laughed at your song made Willie smile. That's enough for me. So but uh yeah I got nominated for uh professional artist of the year uh at the AAMA's this year and uh was nominated for the YYC for Songwriter of the Year in Calgary. And uh yeah lots of recording. Yeah and uh I do quite a bit of recording still in Saskatchewan, some here. I actually uh before I was a musician I was a carpenter. So uh Steve Jevney has Studio 88 just around the corner here. And uh I I pre-built that in because I need I needed a studio close to home.

SPEAKER_06 22:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

So I do some tracking over at uh Studio 88 and some in Saskatchewan. So I just came back from Saskatchewan. I was there for a week and very cool. Yeah, I got about six songs I want to try and release this year. Now are you gonna release them all at once or uh I'm gonna release a few singles and then uh near the end it'll just be a uh a handful that will lump into uh an EP.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

It it it's changed so much, it's not an album drop anymore. It's yeah putting things online.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Yeah, it's different. And I'm an old school guy, like I collect vinyl. I like to I like to read the the sleeve and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

It's funny that you mentioned Steve, uh he was on the show as well. Um and the episode prior to him uh we were talking about a very heavy topic, and uh it was about personal loss, and I ended up tearing up at the end of the interview. I could barely finish it. It was very emotional. And I was thinking to myself, I'm like, God, I can't deal with another kind of emotional punch, right? And I'm like, who's next? And I kind of forgot. And then Steve walks in with his guitar and plays a song about drinking, and I'm like, that's the scene I'm looking for. So Steve kind of saved me from having a very depressing evening. It was uh I didn't play any sad songs. No, but it was uh it was good. So that's my uh Steve memory is him pulling me out of a a nosedive there.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Yeah, he's good at that.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah, very good. Um and uh where do you see the scene going here? Like what what's next do you think for all of Verdry and and the community here?

SPEAKER_02 24:31

It's the sky's a limit here. It's the wild west. Alberta is something. It's uh it's like there's just there's no limit to what you can do. Just keep going. Go through the steps, go through and and I don't know the steps around here, so I'm just doing what I do. But yeah, I see how the system works and I see the artists and you know the going through and meeting the people they need to meet and and uh and making the connections and and supporting each other. Like everybody lifts each other up here. It's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

What do you recommend for uh uh younger artists uh coming up? Because you mentioned a couple of them here, and I I love that you're sharing some names. You know, we're supposed to be sitting here talking about you and you're being deferential to other other artists, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Take my hat off to this place, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

So what advice would you have for younger artists coming up today?

SPEAKER_02 25:24

It's just keep going and uh and keep honest. Like don't don't deceive people, and I've had it myself in my younger days. I had an ego, but everybody gets at in this is, I guess. But the more honest you are and the more keeping it real you are. It's I think that's the the ticket, especially in this world where you know we we got the threat of AI and all that stuff. So keeping honest is I think truly important, and as songwriters like just make sure that you know it's true to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Now, Miles, where can we find your music?

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Uh Miles Canyon Music on Instagram and Miles Canyon on Facebook. Oh, and Miles Canyon Music on TikTok and uh uh what's the other one? YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

YouTube. Excellent. Can you give us one more song to play us out?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Absolutely. I would love to do a love song. I like that a lot. I gotta do a love song then. Since you're in love now. Yeah, since I'm in love now. It's funny, uh we've been together for now five years, but I've known her for 23 years. I used to tour in the Yukon and she was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

How is that not a song?

SPEAKER_02 26:39

I know it should be. I mean, I don't write songs, but I could write a song about working there, waitresses. So uh yeah, I I back then I was I was uh really trying to you know start something with her. She wasn't having it, she had her own plan, and truth be told, I was a touring musician, so I wasn't the best person to date.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

And then uh yeah, years later she called me up and said, What are you doing? I was like fishing. She's like, take me fishing. Now we're wow. Now I'm an Albertan.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

I I love that.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Yeah. So the song is uh loosely based about uh about uh how we met and that sort of thing. It's called Me, Myself, and the Walleye. Also, if you know a good place to find a fishing hole for walleye around here, it's pretty hard to find walleye. We've got lots of them in Saskatchewan.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

If any of our listeners out here know where we could get walleye, let me know, okay?

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Or message uh, you know, Miles Cannon music. I want to know where your fishing holes are.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

What a great name for a song.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:52

My girlfriend up and left me. She said that she don't get me cause I'm fishing all the time. She says it's kind of stupid. She don't know why I do it. Well, I'm glad she said goodbye. Well, I don't really need her, just my rod and my leader, saying I'm having the time of my life. Yeah, I'm doing all right, with me, myself, and walla. I ain't never gonna be alone out here, my aluminum boat. I have my own conversations with every fish I have on my mind And my heart is doing fine Cause it's hanging on the end of my life I'm doing alright Me, myself and Walla Well, I was on a mission to catch the biggest fish in the lake one Friday night Around where I was fishing, this girl skinny dip we nice to look out for my life She's wailing all her glory, she said no need to worry, I can tell you a little bit side But the only thing I'll find is me myself and walla She's the white fish and all Out here in this aluminum boat You should be out here swimming with me in the phone There ain't a way I was saying I've came on my clothes Now she's swimming out here be myself and walk on the lumbo she loves to go fishing with me most ever I can't think I'd find my wife skin up in the mala fishing in the dark with me myself and voila I'm doing all right with me myself and voila things fine with me myself and wallaficial miles Canyon, thank you so much for coming on the show.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Thanks for having me. That was fantastic. We're gonna be back with more great episodes coming up shortly.