Canyon City

Paul Johnson, who records under the name Canyon City, first surfaced in 2015 by merging conversational narratives with a restrained yet cinematic strain of indie folk. Operating from Nashville, he issued multiple EPs before unveiling his debut album, Midnight Waves, in 2016.

Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he relocated to Music City to enroll at Belmont University, where he quickly embedded himself in the local folk and indie circuit by performing at house shows and sharpening his singular approach. His earliest Canyon City releases appeared as the 2015 EPs Flicker a Light and Refuge, followed by Smoke & Ash in 2016. Midnight Waves arrived later that same year as his first full-length, with Constellation issued in 2017.

By the time Bluebird emerged in 2019, Johnson had surpassed 100 million combined streams online, his narrative-driven, textural alt-folk style prompting comparisons to Gregory Alan Isakov, the Tallest Man on Earth, and Noah Gundersen. He returned in 2020 with the homespun EP Circling the Sun.