CanTunes Tuesday: "A Girl Like You" - Dallas Smith

Holy crap, more Canadian country? Well, maybe country music didn't die off; maybe it just went north.

Actually, that's kind of a weak assumption. You see, the Canadian Hot 100 also includes international songs, so sometimes I have to search fairly far back in order to find a Canadian song actually on the Canadian chart. Kind of sad, but I've learned to deal with it.

For example, if you look at the Billboard charts today, you'd see that the #1 song in Canada, for God knows what reason, is the latest Maroon 5 snoozefest "Maps". The highest-charting song by a Canadian artist is Kiesza's "Hideaway", which I've already reviewed. It's hard when you start running out of ammo, but as long as I can find at least something, I should be okay.

Anyway, here's what I've found today: yet another country song. And this one's pretty good, too. Which is surprising to me, because here's where I know Dallas Smith from:

He's the lead singer of Default. A Canadian rock band that made it big with this song and not much else. Default's okay, I guess, but not one of my favourite bands. Sometimes they can be a bit boring. So I wouldn't expect the lead singer to go country and make me like him more at the same time. But... here we are.

I don't know what it is about Canadians and country music, but they just seem to get it. Which is odd, because when you think of country, you typically think down south, not up north. But while I've liked both country songs that I've heard from Canada this year, I haven't liked very many from down south. Can I just relate to these guys better, somehow? Is that it?

Maybe it's not so much that I can relate to them better, but that they're just better lyricists. I mean, look at this:

You like a cherry on top a red striped straw in a Coca Cola classic
I like a little whiskey kick hitting my lips in the red solo plastic

Essentially, he's just singing about the same things most country singers do: girls and alcohol.
But it's clever here. I like how he rhymes "classic" with "plastic", I like that he's a little more playful with his wordplay, I even like the shameless Coca Cola plug. I like it all.

So, buck up, Americans. Why can't you be more country like us? Yee-haw! I'm off to ride into the sunset. Giddyup, couch!