Artichoke Festival expands its music game in a big way at Monterey Fairgrounds.

Just a few years ago, country musician Dallas Smith fronted Canadian alt-rock outfit Default. He delivered angst-ridden mantras like “Sick & Tired” and “I Can’t Win,” and scowled on album covers.

“I wasn’t a very happy dude,” Smith says. “There was a lot of negativity in the songs.”

But after a decade, the platinum-selling rocker decided to make some changes. Smith says the evolution to an everything’s-all-good country music frontman happened gradually, over a several-year period. After he tied the knot and had a couple of kids, negativity naturally began to disappear from his songwriting.

“Not only did I change my style, it was the first time I was doing something on my own [not as a band],” Smith explains.

Just like Smith’s evolution, the Castroville Artichoke Food & Wine Festival’s has been gradual and substantial. Fresh off a successful debut at its new Monterey County Fairgrounds digs, it has more changes in store for this year. It’s stepping up its music game, bringing in some major touring acts to perform on the Fairgrounds’ storied main stage arena. (Tickets are sold separately for each day.) Saturday features the bigger names, kicking off with Canadian country-pop twosome High Valley at 1:30pm. Self-proclaimed “Redneck Rockers” Blackjack Billy go on at 3:30pm and Smith closes out the day at 5:30pm.

Change isn’t without its challenges.Adapting to the Nashville way of songwriting was difficult for the 37-year-old Smith, who signed his first record deal at 21, to get used to.

“Default songs came while we were casually shooting the shit and drinking beer together as a band,” he says. “Nashville songwriting is sitting in a room with three guys and hammering out a song by the end of the day. The Nashville way is definitely more focused. I enjoy being surrounded by that kind of talent.”

Smith’s 2011 country debut Jumped Right In yielded five hits on the Canadian charts. He was one of Canada’s best-selling country newcomers of the year. It took a few more years for the musician to hit the U.S. market, but in 2014, he made it onto the U.S. Country Billboard charts with his 5-track EP Tippin’ Point.

Country music critic Matt Bjorke wrote, “these songs are a strong presentation of Dallas Smith as a solo artist ready to break out as the next country music star.”

Smith’s 2014 full-length record Lifted also made the U.S. Billboard charts, fueled by the refreshing and hook-laden single “Wastin’ Gas.” The Canadian calls the album “part of the progression towards making the kind of record I want to make.”

“The overall message is positivity,” Smith says. “I want to create records that you could just throw on when you want to have a good time or you’re already having a good time.”

Blackjack Billy has a similar gameplan: write songs about having good times that inspire good times or enhance good times already in progress. The Nashville foursome is the trailer park incarnation of Three Doors Down. Their polished brand of country rock-meets-Southern rock features lyrics packed with American beer, sunburnt women, flatbed trucks and a lot of time at the lake.

“It’s redneck rock with a country roll,” says bassist Rob Blackledge.

“Jeep full of girls, couldn’t get hotter/ Flag ’em down holler, won’t you follow,” sings frontman Noll Billings on BJB’s “The Booze Cruise,” the group’s breakthrough hit. It was the fastest selling debut country single of 2013, and it was the biggest seller on iTunes by a band without a record deal.

Blackledge explains that BJB’s recent single “Why God Made Summertime” began after guitarist Jeff Coplan asked why nobody had ever written a song called “Why God Made Summertime.” He never got an answer, and the band’s quintessential summertime country anthem was born.

Meanwhile, music on the main stage at the Artichoke Fest continues Sunday with four regional acts, beginning with Louie and the Lovers (10:45am), whose origins are Salinas circa 1972. Cali-Tex-Mex blues rockers Rio Salinas (12:45pm) also started out over four decades ago. The Texas Tornadoes (2:30pm) unleash authentic Tex-Mex packaged in San Antonio and the closer, Banda S7 (4:30pm), boasts a 16-person Sinaloense collective out of Jalisco, Mexico.

The festival will also provide live music on the grounds – free with admission – just as it has previous years. On Saturday, the young talents from Samz School of Music will treat artichoke lovers to some classic rock (2:30pm) and the quintet The Moondance Band (4:30pm) will deliver a “tribute to the decades,” beginning in the 1950s and spanning the 2000s. Then, Sunday will feature one of Monterey County’s most beloved mariachi outfits, Mariachi Estelar (12:15pm), who’ve been keeping the tradition alive for more than 15 years. Local favorite the Chicano All Stars (4:20pm) close the festival with their high-energy, dance-inducing Latin rock.

Music on the Main Stage at Castroville Artichoke Food & Wine Festival happens 1:30-6:45pm Saturday, and 10:45am-5:45pm Sunday, May 30-31. Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. $25/Sunday; $15/Sunday (must be purchased separately from festival admission.) www.artichokefestival.org