Brian McLoughlin / Contributing writer
Born and raised in Pembroke, Ontario, Jason Blaine picked up guitar at age 8 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, Jason recounts on his web site.
“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, Jason followed his friends to college as “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 proven 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 with the 2003 single “That’s What I Do.”
“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 sit down, and wrote a song,” he says. “I feel like I’ve been given some really great gifts musically, I’ve never taken formal lessons, 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.”
Pursuing his dream, Jason moved to Nashville to begin work on his second album. “Make My Move” was released by Koch Entertainment Canada on May 20, 2008. His third album, “Sweet Sundown” released in early 2010 and produced three Top 10 singles, “Numb”, “Run With Me” and the single and video “Hillbilly Girl”. He has also been nominated as the Canadian Country Music Awards “Producer of the Year” for his album “Sweet Sundown”.
In May 2010, Jason was the only Canadian act to open for Brooks & Dunn on their final Canadian Tour.
Jason has been enjoying a highly successful run at the top of the Country music charts on both radio and CMT Canada for the past five years and he is currently on a three stop tour, playing Little Current and Ottawa, Ontario, on August 4th and 12th and at Stettler’s Steel Wheel Stampede on August 15th. “Let ‘er Buck!”