Alumni Story

A lesson you learn in school is it’s not about the information you’re learning, it’s about how you learn the information.”

There are many paths to Catawba. For Canaan, it was a cattle call, an event which allows students from various high schools who are interested in majoring in theater to audition for multiple colleges at once. A Catawba theatre professor was there and took note of Canaan. Visiting his high school, she told him about Catawba’s theater program. Canaan was also a good football player. He asked if he could do both. He remembers her answer. “Technically, you could. But the theatre program is very extensive.” He fielded several offers from colleges with well-known football programs to come play, but explains, “I wanted to perform. It was never my dream to be in the NFL.”

Perform he did, since fourth grade, in anything he could. Canaan credits his six siblings with always providing him an audience. “If there was a storm and the power went out, it was always, ‘Canaan, get up and entertain us.’ I think I just realized early on that I enjoyed being the center of attention,” Canaan laughs, “and I made a career out of it.”   

In Catawba’s theater program, “They do a really good job of just throwing you in the thick of it,” he says. Freshman year, he was assigned as lead carpenter for a production. “You’re in charge of seniors, you have to make a plan and a schedule, put it together.” Faculty oversee it, but at times it felt daunting. “It set the bar of what the next four years were going to be like. And you had to step up.” 

Also interested in music, Canaan performed with the Vernaculars at Catawba. “I’m so grateful I got to do both theatre and music. And now, I’m utilizing both.”  Senior year, he started a cover band. “Some weekends we performed eight times in country bars.”  He would leave theatre, stage makeup on, and perform until 2:00 a.m.  “A lesson you learn in school is it’s not about the information you’re learning, it’s about how you learn the information. And life skills, getting up and getting to your 8 o’clock class on time.”

After graduation, another cattle call got him a job at Six Flags Over Texas. “I was hired to play mandolin in a bluegrass show. When they discovered I was a performer they put me in a Broadway review and a country show.” After a couple of years, he went on cruise ships as a solo performer, singing and playing guitar.  “Not a bad way to spend your twenties,” he smiles. Canaan also plays violin and piano, but quickly adds, “I know piano well enough to write a song and accompany myself. I’m not going to whip out some Chopin.”

He always knew he wanted to move to Nashville. “I met a couple of cool people from Nashville on ships. Their advice was the same, ‘You need to be there.’”  He moved there in 2017, getting a job serving, making connections in music. He did solo gigs, toured outside Nashville, then had a full band doing cover gigs. After a while, the pay left after deducting travel expenses, plus being away all weekend, didn’t seem quite worth it. “When I got married, I was just really tired of not being home.” Canaan says, “I said, ‘I’m done. I want to play my music.’ As soon as I said that doors started to open.”

Then COVID hit. For Canaan, “it slowed everything down and put things in perspective.”  His shows were canceled. He went back to serving. “Then Bobby Bones came into the restaurant, of iHeartRadio, which has over 9 million listeners. I told him I loved his show, that I was an artist. He called me the next week and invited me on his show to perform. A couple of folks in the music industry took notice.” He was booked for more shows, then got a distributor. “It’s been an uphill grind, but we’re seeing the rewards as well. I’m an independent artist; we’ve passed on five labels now.”  He adds, “I’m not against labels. But if you have any sense of work ethic, and remotely good music, you should be okay.”

Canaan sums up his path since Catawba: “Theme park. Cruise ships. Playing Broadway reviews, acoustic covers. Then right place, right time. It’s a continuous grind of releasing music, posting on social media, having a good plan around that, and hopefully people connect with it. If so, awesome. If not, go write another song. I always joke around that I’ve got forty-five or fifty songs out now, but about six of them are the ones that pay the mortgage.”  It is a process that builds; release ten songs, one of them connects, and so on.

Current influences for Canaan include Ed Sheeran, whose versatility he admires. “He’s a chameleon when it comes to music and I respect that. And I love Bruno Mars for showmanship. I admire his ‘swagger’, being able to have the audience in the palm of your hand.”  Whenever asked to describe the kind of music he plays, Canaan cites another influence, “It’s like The Band CAMINO with a banjo. I also have a little Rascal Flatt-ness to my voice, a little twang.”

Canaan directs, edits, and produces all his music videos. “I do pretty much everything but hit record on the camera. I do all the things because I love it. It uses what I learned at Catawba, building sets, lighting, creating the characters.” He is resourceful, known to use duct tape to create the special effect he needs. He scouts locations, driving around Nashville with a map app. He knocks on people’s doors, introduces himself and asks, “Can we shoot a video in your back yard?” They let him.

A huge inspiration for his music videos are Michael Jackson’s, with their theatrical stories. Canaan tries to incorporate “Michael Jackson on a budget”. He thinks of it as, “I have these skills. It was never ‘how do we stand out?’ it was ‘this is who I am’.”

He seeks to keep it all in perspective. “I think about this, when Michael Jackson died, the biggest pop star on planet Earth, the world was like, ‘Aww…let’s listen to his music today…What are we eating for dinner?’  If someone that caliber gets maybe twenty-four hours of ‘aww’, who cares what your mom thinks about you trying to chase your music career? Or what the haters are saying?” he says with a wry laugh. “If you realize that, it takes some of the pressure off.”

He has felt that pressure. “I remember being outside of Keppel Auditorium as a student, saying, ‘I made a mistake, I should’ve gone to film school,’ You feel like everything is the highest of stakes. But you have no grasp of what real life is yet. Scientifically, your brain is not fully formed at that age. I wish I could tell eighteen-year-old me that you have time. The only thing different between then and now is that I’m way smarter,” he laughs, “I just know so much more. If you could put that into students’ brains, that you’ve got so much still ahead of you. And if it doesn’t all work out the first year, good!”

Another memory: Going late at night to Keppel with his guitar, sitting on the edge of the stage and performing. He’d visualize what it would feel like playing in front of people. “And now, here we are,” Canaan smiles, referring to his performance on Keppel’s stage at Catawba’s 2025 Homecoming weekend. 

So, if it doesn’t all work out that first year, good. It’s still going to be good, as Canaan can prove.

Catawba is pleased to share that Canaan Cox was inducted into the Blue Masque Hall of Fame in 2025.