He's topping the charts in the country music scene and soon Yorkton and area residents will have the opportunity to see him live and in person.
Pembroke-born Jason Blaine will take centre stage October 7 at Holly's Nightclub. His 1st single - Numb - from his new album, Sweet Sundown, went Top 10 on the CMT Country Music Countdown, and the Country Radio Charts. His 2nd single - Run With Me - climbed into the Top 10 on radio, making the song Blaine's 10th straight Top 25 single in Canada.
In 2002, Blaine won Country Music Television's Project Discovery, which launched his career with the 2003 single "That's What I Do." His independent full-length debut, While We Were Waiting, came out in 2005 and included the Top 25 singles "Heartache Like Mine," "While We Were Waiting" and "What I Can't Forget." The follow-up album on E1 Music, Make My Move, came out two years later and hit the Top 5 on the Soundscan Country Album Chart. The first five singles all hit the Top 25, include Top 5's with "Rock In My Boots" and "Flirtin' With Me," and became the first country singer in Canada to hit #1 twice on The CMT Countdown as an independent artist.
Blaine's third album, Sweet Sundown, digs a little deeper than his last album, 2008's fun-filled Make My Move. From dealing with life as a touring musician to saying thank you to the peacekeepers overseas, the Canadian country singer-songwriter decided to get a bit more serious this time around.
"I didn't want to completely recreate my last record," says Blaine, 29, a native of Pembroke, Ontario, who now calls Nashville home. "I wanted half the record to be what fans might expect, what I like, what works live and fun, such as 'Hillbilly Girl,' but I wanted to have more dimensions to my music and that's where 'Heroes' come from."
"Hillbilly Girl" is a boisterous rockin' hootenanny on which Jason sings, "she's a fire-cracker / ain't no doubt / no way I can live without / my hot little hillbilly girl," but the ballad "Heroes" is more poignant and emotional, inspired by the many friends Jason knows in the military willing to "give your life up for a stranger / lay down so they can live."
Since signing a publishing deal and living in Music City (Nash Vegas to his friends), Jason has learned a lot about songwriting - or at least the way he feels most comfortable composing songs. The Nashville way is famous for churning out songs on a daily writing schedule, which Jason did for three years, but it became more of a job and diluted his artistry.
"Right now, I'm focusing on writing for my career and writing less, gathering up really good ideas and turning them into something very goal-driven, writing with a sense of purpose," he explains.
"I've always got a list of ideas, but it's something that takes some getting used to - but it's something that I don't mind taking a break from. I did a lot of this the past three years, walking in and meeting a complete stranger and having a personal conversation about whatever we're going to be writing about.
"I do enjoy the co-writing process," he says, adding that for Sweet Sundown he returned to the mill of songwriters he collaborated with on Make My Move, including Willie Mack and Noah Gordon. "It's all about the right chemistry. People have something to offer and it's fun. Out of the conversation usually turns out a great song. I've had the whole idea has come out of our morning coffee conversations."
Blaine picked up guitar at age eight and started writing songs at 16, around the time he joined his father and brother onstage in their "hobby" band. Country was a natural direction for him. "My parents always had country music on," he says. "I never liked anything hard or anything that made me feel angry, but I definitely grew to like rock, like AC/DC's Back In Black."
Although he knew he wanted to be a musician, he followed his friends to college as it was "the thing to do." He graduated from the business program at Ottawa's Algonquin College, and then decided on a career in music, but the degree has proved useful. "It gave me a lot of tools to run my own business and help me in the decision making process," Jason says. "It still is the music business, but I'm thankful that music comes before the business."
In 2002, he won Country Music Television's Project Discovery competition, which launched his career.
"I love creating. I love the idea that every time we hear a song on the radio at one point somebody sat down, just as I sat down, and wrote a song," he says. "In terms of a career in this world, I feel like I've been given some really great gifts musically, I've never taken formal lesson's, so nobody could convince me that music is not the right career for me. I feel like this is really what I'm meant to be doing.
"It's very satisfying to look back at the work that I've done and know that I've been creating it and building it and been able to do some great things."
To download the complete Sweet Sun-down CD visit: www.bit.ly/JasonBlaine.
