Canaan Smith and Wife Christy Pregnant With First Child
Congratulations!
Not only did Canaan Smith drop new music on fans today with the release of the tender love song “Life Ain’t Fair,” he also shared some big news. He and his wife Christy are expecting their first child in November.
“Christy’s feeling great, no complications,” Smith excitedly tells Sounds Like Nashville. “Hopefully, we’ll have a safe delivery and we’ll be changed people forever.”
With only six weeks till baby Smith arrives, why did the expectant parents keep their good news under wraps until now? “I really dialed back on social media being a part of my life in general over the past couple of years,” he says. “Before social media we didn’t know the minute somebody was pregnant. Everyone kind of lived their lives and announced when it happened when it happened. I felt like this was our way of having something that was just for us, that only we knew. That was special.” Bucking another modern convention, the couple doesn’t plan a gender reveal. “We’re not finding out,” he says of learning the baby’s sex. “We want to be surprised.”
Smith admits the news that he was going to be a father was a wonderful surprise. “I was coming home from a co-write and she was touching base with me because we were having an in-home visit from the Home Depot specialist that tries to sell you on water filtration systems,” he says. “They asked if they could come do a visit in our home on a Monday. I was like, ‘Oh gosh! You are too nice Christy,’ but that’s what was happening and the person was due to arrive shortly right after my co-write.”
As it turns out, Smith was fascinated with all the info the sales lady was presenting and the home visit lasted an hour and a half. “We had this stranger in our house showing us how dirty our water is and how clean it could be if we used their filters and all of a sudden I went from not excited that they were in our house on a Monday evening and I’m not going to buy then that shifted into, ‘Oh crap this is pretty cool!’ She had all these little experiments showing us how it all works and I started to be a little fascinated by it. In the meantime, Christy is thinking, ‘Oh my gosh! This is stretching out so long. I have to tell him I just found out I’m pregnant!’”
Eventually, the saleslady left and Christy shared the news. “As I shut the door she said, ‘Remember that dream I told you I had that said I was pregnant?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think you did. I don’t remember it,’” Smith recalls. “She goes, ‘Yeah remember I told you I had a dream I was pregnant?’ Then it hit me. I went, ‘Oh my God! Are you telling me we’re pregnant right now?’ She didn’t even have to say it. We kind of laughed and cried. It was crazy. On a regular Monday, up until then it was life as usual.”
Canaan and Christy, who is a nurse practitioner, have been married for five years, and are thrilled about being parents. “It hit me hard,” Smith shares. “I’m so excited about the journey before the baby even gets here. I’m trying to think through what it’s going to be like and that’s an emotional journey too. I have days where I’m super stoked and then I have days where I’m like, ‘Oh my God! It’s going to be so hard,’ but we’ve been able to talk about that. We’ve got friends that have gone before us and are loving life with children. We’re excited we get to be parents.”
In releasing the news, Canaan and Christy are sharing a video set to the new song, “Life Ain’t Fair,” which shows sweet clips of the expectant couple, including Smith kissing her baby bump. “It’s a video content visualizer,” he explains. “It’s a 20-second loop of some footage of Christy and I at home and it’s really cool.”
Smith co-wrote “Life Ain’t Fair” with Corey Crowder and Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard. “It’s a really cool twist on those set of words,” Smith says of the lyric. “It’s basically saying, ‘If I got what I had coming, if I got what I deserve, I guarantee that I’d have nothing close to good as you for sure. Either finding you was lucky or my mama’s answered prayers. A guy like me, a girl like you, I thank God life ain’t fair.’”
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Smith is looking forward to getting feedback from fans about the song. “It feels special,” he says. “It’s a lot of people’s story and we’re excited to put it out and see what people think.”
In August, Smith signed as the first artist on Florida Georgia Line’s Round Here Records. “They’ve gone before me and know the ins and outs in this business as well as anyone does,” he says. “They gave me an opportunity to take back a little control, but also share a vision with people I trust and people I know can get it done. This is the beginning, and the way we’re coming about it is non-traditional. We’re not saying, ‘Here’s the radio single. Hope it works.’ We’re trying to record songs that people believe in and want to hear. We’re releasing them digitally to give people a chance to live with them and find out which ones really resonate. They share that vision.”
Smith has been out on the road touring with Florida George Line, but plans to get back in the studio soon. “Once the tour is wrapped up and we’re back home, I’m going to go cut the next batch [of songs] which I’m even more excited about,” he says. “We just keep honing in on Canaan Country. Canaan Country is the new movement we’re calling this phase in my life.”
Smith plans to take time off around the due date to make sure he’s present for the birth, and is excited about this new season in life. “I feel blessed beyond measure,” he says. “I feel I can really let go and kind of just trust God right now in this phase in my life. I feel like a lot of this music business—if you let it—you can get hung up in trying to control it all and trying to make it happen. Right now I’m just trying to remember what I enjoy about music in the first place and come at it from that angle. All these blessings are proof that I’m in the right place.”
