Today’s spotlight shines on a talented and energetic artist, Canaan Cox. The singer-songwriter is a force to be reckoned with. He’s an actor, singer, dancer, writer, and even goes as far as producing, directing, and editing for his music videos.

Growing up in Henderson, North Carolina, Cox was born into a fairly musical family. “I was kind of surrounded by music. My mom and dad, they both play and write,” began the singer. “My grandma played piano in church and I would always sing, and my degree is in musical theater.”

According to Cox, he grew up listening to all different sorts of musical genres. “I remember the first CD I ever bought was a Michael Jackson CD, which is completely odd, like we were playing bluegrass,” shared the singer. “It was a huge different melting pot of music because there was so many of us,” added Cox, when talking about his big family of siblings.

Cox credits his parents for introducing him to artists like Conway Twitty and Lynyrd Skynyrd. “I grew up in country music and in the Carolinas and in the mountains, I don’t think you ever get over that being in your roots.”

Despite that, he gravitated towards pop himself. “Hanson is still to this day one of my favorite bands. Me personally, I was latching on to the more high-energy pop kind of stuff. Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Whitney [Houston].”

The Turning Point:

Cox took his love for music, and made a career out of it. After going to college for musical theater and writing while there, the singer pursed both acting and singing in new ways “After college, I got a job at theme parks, performing at Six Flags out in Texas. It was kind of a mix of acting and singing. I always knew I wanted to move to Nashville even then.”

Still, Cox did not make the move to music city. “There was always this love and desire to get to Nashville, but it was kind of  like I’ll get there when I’m ready.” While working on cruise ships, early on, Cox met someone who encouraged him to continue to pursue his dreams.

“I met a very, very famous person’s manager on one of the cruise ships. […] We became friends and he was like my only advice to you right now is, ‘you gotta move to Nashville,” shared the singer. “That always stuck with me.”

Flash forward three years after performing on cruise ships, Cox finally made the move to Music City.

Today:

Now, Cox takes his talent and knowledge of musical theatre to create music that is all his own. His pop-country sound is laced throughout his entire catalog of music. The singer recently started sharing songs off his self-titled EP. So far, fans can listen to, “As You Leave,” “J.O.Y.,” and “Wish.”

The latter two are both high-energy and fun songs that any music lover will fall in love with. Cox shared with us how “J.O.Y.,” came about during our conversation. “The acronym happened by accident. I had the idea of “Jokes On You,” began the singer. “I was dating a girl for a long time and she left me for another dude, and the next girl I started dating after her, is now my wife.”

Cox continued,“I started just writing this whole thing about ‘ wow I’m great, what a perfect situation that happened.’ If I hadn’t gone through that, I wouldn’t be where I am, not with my wife and my child.” The acronym worked out as a happy accident as well. Similarly, “Wish” is another optimistic song, a type of song we need during today’s day and age.

Fans can anticipate the final song dropping soon and even more music after that. Stay tuned!

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