Dallas Smith is a Canadian country music superstar. And on Friday night, he returned to Boots & Hearts for the fourth time in his career - and he showed everyone why he's one of the hottest acts in Canada.
The sun still felt high and hot in the sky when Smith hit the stage on a gorgeous festival season evening. But the heat didn't matter to the thousands of fans already at the main stage who pushed closer to each other and the stage to get a closer look at the show. They were ready, they were loud, and as soon as they saw Dallas Smith come out onto the stage, they let him know how excited they were.
Dallas did a fantastic job on Friday night of weaving in hits and fan favourites from his entire country music career. We got four songs from Jumped Right In (2012), four songs from Lifted (2014), five songs from Side Effects (2016), plus his two most recent singles, Make 'Em Like You and One Drink Ago. It was a great mix that had new fans and the day one supporters singing along and loving life.
When we wrote our Boots & Hearts preview for Dallas, we mentioned special moments. And on Friday night, he delivered. When Madeline Merlo came out to sing Terri Clark's part on One Drink Ago, we were all happy and a big cheer rose from the crowd. And later on in the night, when Dallas came out during the Florida Georgia Line encore to pair up with the boys on Up Down he earned more applause and screams and love from the Boots & Hearts faithful. Special moments indeed.
We've talked to Dallas about his journey from an early afternoon set of originals and covers at Boots & Hearts year one in 2012 to now - and while he continues to be humble and hard working and entirely genuine, his star also keeps getting bigger and brighter every single time we see him.
On Friday night he worked the catwalk to be closer to his fans. He lead them in sing alongs that were as loud as anyone could have imagined they would be. He pumped out a 16 song set that didn't miss a beat. And he entertained the hell out of somewhere around 30,000 country music fans.
My very last note from the set says this, and wraps things up pretty perfectly...
This is everything we expected and hoped we'd get in a set from Dallas at Boots & Hearts.
Dallas Smith Setlist, Boots & Hearts 2018
🥃 If It Gets You Where You Wanna Go
🥃 Nothing But Summer
🥃 Wastin' Gas
🥃 Side Effects
🥃 Sky Stays This Blue
🥃 One Little Kiss
🥃 Make 'Em Like You
🥃 One Drink Ago (with Madeline Merlo)
🥃 Somebody Somewhere
🥃 Tippin' Point
🥃 Kids With Cars
🥃 Autograph
🥃 Jumped Right In
🥃 Lifted
🥃 Cheap Seats
