Brock Press

Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Jason Blaine loves playing live music. Ever since he was eight, he's been playing guitar in bands. Now, 20 years later, things are starting to take hold. Blaine grew up in music, with his dad playing in a band with the same guys for 25 years.
"They played anniversaries and weddings," said Blaine. "They played stuff from Phil Collins, Rod Stewart and the Eagles, to George Straight, Randy Travis and Alabama. Because they played these types of events and not clubs, I was able to go out and see them play."
Country music has always been a substantial part of Blaine's lifestyle. When he was younger, his mom would wake up and put on a pot of coffee and turn on the FM country radio station.
Although he grew up with music, Blaine got a bit of a late start performing.
"I didn't really learn to write songs until I was 15 or 16," said Blaine, "but I always knew it was something I really wanted to do."
Being from the small town of Pembroke, ON, Blaine found that moving to the Kitchener and Waterloo area, and then to Nashville in October of 2006, helped forge his path into the country music industry.
"I lived in the Kitchener/Waterloo area for about five years and I played around the southern Ontario circuit," said Blaine. "I recorded an album there that ended up doing really well for me. It churned out three radio hits and three top-20 videos on CMT ... I moved to Nashville to write and record in the epicentre of the country music scene and eventually tap into the US market."
Releasing his music through both radio and television has been really important to Blaine, in that it helps familiarize himself with his fans. Even though he is connecting with a widespread audience from both radio and music videos, he still thinks the best medium for getting himself "out there" is still the live concert.
"It's all about the fans, just getting out there and playing live in front of them and making sure everyone is having a good time," he said.
Although Blaine has been working at his music career for what feels like a long time, he still claims that he is relatively new to the country music scene. The past few years have been extremely gracious to Blaine. This year he was given the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the kickoff of the Calgary Stampede, and over the last two years he has presented an award at the Canadian Country Music Awards with his friend Johnny Reid and closed out the evening winning awards, all while he had the number one video in the country.
While he has already had some great achievements in the past, Blaine refuses to look anywhere but forward. Even when he is not playing live, his music has been working for him on both the radio-waves and on television. He has been constantly touring Canada in support of his latest release, Make My Move, and he cannot wait to take a little bit of time off to work on his future album and enjoy some of his hard-earned success.
"The new single is called 'Good Day to Get Gone' and I have been told that it is now one of the fastest rising singles on country radio right now, I'm really excited about it," said Blaine. "I've been touring in Canada all summer long and my wife and I are expecting our second child. I'm really looking forward to getting back down to our home in Nashville and getting back into the writing process and preparing for future recordings for the new album."
Jason Blaine performs at Isaac's on Oct. 7

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