Country superstar Alan Jackson, in his autobiographical song Chasin' That Neon Rainbow, sings about his daddy's winning a radio and how that influenced his love of country music at an early age.
With Tony Cannon of Waynesboro, Ga., his father didn't win a radio, but he did buy one for Tony and his brother, Michael. That opened a whole new world of country music for Tony as a child.
"I remember when I was about 6 or 7 sitting at a window in our home and singing Garth Brooks' song The River all the time," Mr. Cannon said in a phone interview. "My daddy said I had a voice like an angel. Now, I sing more like Blake Shelton."
The River, composed by Victoria Shaw and Mr. Brooks, is a song of hope for all dreamers who keep trying to make it in spite of the odds.
The chorus goes:
"I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry.
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky.
I'll never reach my destination
If I never try.
So I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry."
As the 23-year-old Mr. Cannon goes to work daily at Cates Firestone in Waynesboro, Ga., he probably feels like his music vessel quite hasn't left the dock. But he puts in hard hours of honest labor to keep his dreams alive; hoping one day his music will be heard across the nation.
He already has a lot of experience under his Western belt, as the drummer with Bryan Pryor and Travis Pulley in the Christian alternative trio Wild Vines in Waynesboro, and playing in the traditional country roots band Country Magic, also based in Waynesboro.
"I told the guys in Country Magic that I had bigger dreams than playing in bars," he said.
He now seems to be on track for those bright lights and stardom with his new Gold Bar Records CD, Up to My Neck in Red. It can be bought at cdbaby.com. Type "Tony Cannon" in the search window.
It's almost a family album: His brother wrote Take My Hand; his fiancee, Charity Flake, wrote No One But Me; and his stepfather, Cecil Howard, wrote Ecstacy and co-wrote, with Mr. Cannon, Rusted and Rugged, the best cut on the album.
"My stepdad wrote the words, and I wrote the music to Rusted and Rugged," Mr. Cannon said. "I was in Atlanta doing some electrical work and wrote the tune about 4 in the morning at a Motel 6."
Mr. Cannon, who was born in Moultrie, Ga., and reared in Albany and Tifton, recorded the album because of a convenience store worker in Girard, Ga., and an Augustan trying to get his own record company off the ground.
Reuben Cooper, the owner of Q&C Multi-Services on Peach Orchard Road and Gold Bar Records, stopped at the Girard Mall store and asked the clerk whether she knew of any good singers around the area.
Sarah Dixon told him about Mr. Cannon, whom she had known from her church, where he sang. Mr. Cooper contacted the singer and arranged for recording sessions with the country rock band Southbound in Thomson, Ga.
The sessions were produced by Steve Ferguson, the program director of radio station WTHO in Thomson, and engineered by Augusta music celebrity Ruskin Yeargain. Mr. Cannon and Southbound (Jake Jacobs, Chris Powers, Ed Gaskill, Bart Ficzere and Brad Wasden) have performed at two Day in the Country shows at the Augusta Riverfront Marina and at the Redneck Games festival in Dublin, Ga.
Will Mr. Cannon ever make it big? My bet is that the determined young man probably will continue to sail his vessel until his music river runs dry.
Don Rhodes has written about country music for 34 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.
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