From the suburbs to the stage: 2 of this year's Juno nominees for best country album are rooted in B.C.

About five years ago, Tyler Joe Miller says he was "swinging a hammer," working as a carpenter and house painter, and just starting to break into the Canadian country music scene. 

On Christmas Day 2019, he released his first single, Pillow Talkin', and his first EP came out the following year later. Miller has since been nominated for several Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMAs), including Songwriter of the Year in 2023. 

Now, he's nominated for Country Album of the Year for his latest EP, Going Home, at the 2025 Juno Awards.  

"This stuff is crazy," he told Gloria Macarenko, the host of  CBC's On The Coast. "It still blows my mind that this is something that I get to do for a living."

Miller is on the shortlist with Alberta stars Brett Kissel and MacKenzie Porter, Ontario's Josh Ross — who is up for five awards this year — and fellow British Columbian Dallas Smith. 

While Miller grew up in Surrey, he and Smith both put down roots in Langley, B.C. — a community outside the hustle and bustle of Vancouver, where country-loving souls can enjoy the rural surroundings and, in Miller's case, raise some chickens. 

"[There's] something in the water," Smith told Stephen Quinn, the host of The Early Edition. "I mean, the city's motto was where city meets country, right?"

His self-titled album, released in late 2023, is a Juno contender this spring and was already nominated for Album of the Year at the 2024 CCMAs. 

Smith hasn't always been a country king; in fact, his career started in 1999 as the frontman for Default, a Canadian rock group that released four albums over eight years and won a Juno for Best New Group in 2002. 

But he said he's always loved country music. 

"I'm a big believer in a good song is a good song." 

Smith recently played the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., a dream for any country musician. 

"It was incredible," he said. "To actually get the invite from the Opry … it's quite an amazing, humbling experience." 

Miller spent some time in Nashville himself recently, writing new songs and shooting a music video. 

Upon his arrival home, he went to Aldergrove to pick up some chicks — baby chickens, that is. 

"We moved to a property here [and] it had like a kind of an old chicken coop that needed some fixing up, so I spent the last little bit fixing her up, and we're putting the run in pretty soon here," Miller said. "We're kind of learning how to take care of chickens now, I guess."

Now, the two Langley-based artists will face off on Sunday at the 2025 Juno Awards, where they're up against some stiff competition. 

"I'll just take an Uber down," Smith said with a laugh. "I'm looking forward to it. I mean, the Junos aren't here very often, so I'm going to enjoy that and enjoy it being in my backyard."