Climbing the stairs onto Terri Clark鈥檚 tour bus, Dallas Smith had it in his mind that the two Canadian country music stars should sing a song together.
Fast forward almost two years, and Smith鈥檚 vision has become a reality. The pair are releasing a duet on Friday called One Drink Ago.
鈥淵ou came up onto the bus and said 鈥榟ey, we should sing something together鈥 and I said, 鈥榙o you mean it,鈥欌 Clark recounted.
The 91原创 artist definitely meant it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 happening,鈥 the pair cheered days before the song was set to be release.
It鈥檚 not only being released on Good Friday, but the multi-platinum country musicians are teaming up to perform the song together at the Grand Ole Opry on April 10.
鈥淸It was a] huge honour to share a track with the one and only Terri Clark,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淗ope everyone enjoys this one as much as we did recording it.鈥
The pair share a booking agent and some other team members.
鈥淲e鈥檝e became friends over the last few years,鈥 Smith explained, Clark noting that they hung out at her cabin and went out on the lake in her boat together before he hit her up with the idea of performing together.
Picking just the right song for the two of them to perform took a little time, Clark explained.
They searched through a number of songs, and she even wrote a few and went in studio to record them. Turns out, after almost a year of searching for just the right number, they returned back to one of the first songs they ever heard, and 鈥渕agically,鈥 according to Smith, the song came available to them and tomorrow the world will have access.
Merging what are described as their 鈥渟mooth vocals and seamless harmonies,鈥 they tell a playful story about a night on the town, and the result of 鈥榳hat happens鈥 when you throw a little liquid courage into the mix.
Between them, this pair hold five JUNO Awards and 23 Canadian Country Music Awards.
Smith recently celebrated his fifth career #1 and fourth consecutive chart topper with the irresistible hit Sleepin鈥 Around on both the Nielsen BDS and Mediabase Country radio charts.
With the track鈥檚 success, he also became the first and only Canadian country artist in the Nielsen BDS era to have four consecutive #1 singles from the same album, topping the three from Shania Twain鈥檚 Come On Over. He also tied Twain for the most #1 songs by a Canadian Country artist in the Nielsen BDS era with five.
Earlier this month, Smith released Acoustic Sessions Vol. 1, an EP featuring six stripped back tracks from his various chart-topping releases including four of his #1 hits; Autograph, Side Effects and Sky Stays This Blue from the top-selling CCMA Award winning album Side Effects, as well as Wastin鈥 Gas from his 2015 JUNO Award winning album Lifted.
His latest video for the romantic single 50/50 features behind the scenes footage from his 2017 Side Effects Tour, which ushered in crowds in the thousands, notching 28 shows in 27 cities across the country.
He is set to hit the road again this summer for a handful of live festival dates, including a headlining play at the Rockin鈥 River Musicfest in Merritt, and slots at Big Valley Jamboree, Boots and Hearts Music Festival, Cavendish Beach Music Festival, and Dauphin鈥檚 Countryfest.
鈥淥ne Drink Ago鈥 is out at radio now!
鈥 Dallas Smith (@dallassmith)
HUGE honour to share a track with the one and only ! Hope everyone enjoys this one as much as we did recording it!
As for Clark, she has more than five million albums sold.
With her critically acclaimed international tours, and hit singles such as Better Things To Do, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Girls Lie Too, Northern Girl, and I Just Wanna Be Mad, she has solidified her place in the history books of country music.
Clark is a three-time JUNO Award winner who has been named CCMA female vocalist of the year five times and has taken home eight CCMA fan鈥檚 choice awards. In total, she鈥檚 had the honour of receiving a whopping 19 CCMA Awards.
Her internationally syndicated radio show, Country Gold with Terri Clark, airs on more than 145 stations across the U.S.A. and Canada. It debuted in 2016 and was recently recognized with a 2017 CMA Award nomination for national broadcast personality of the year and a 2018 ACM Award nomination for national on-air personality of the year.
This past fall, Clark joined forces with Pam Tillis and Suzy Bogguss for the Chicks With Hits Tour 鈥 a guitar-pull style acoustic tour featuring chart-topping hits from three renowned women of country music and will be back out on the road again with them this year.
One Drink Ago will be included in Clark鈥檚 new album, which she just reported finishing earlier this week and says will be released this summer.