Sexy Country Singer Jason Blaine

When I first started working with country singer Jason Blaine, my first thought was “Wow. He’s incredibly good-looking. The ladies are going to love him.”

My second thought was “This young troubadour can write fine country songs that fans of Taylor Swift, Sugarland and Lady Antebellum can dig. He can say  more in one verse and chorus than 10 pages of a movie script can.”

My third thought was, “Wow. He’s incredibly good-looking. The ladies are going to love him.”

Just when you begin to think country music is nothing more than a sad, beer-swillin’, gut-wrenchin’ the dog died, my woman kicked me out, I lost my job and my parents hate me, oh, look a notice from the government asking where I’ve been all these years, please, kindly, pay your taxes, someone comes along to remind you that the genre isn’t your granddaddy’s music anymore. Enter Jason Blaine.  

Jason 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.  

Jason 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. “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.”  

Combining his 3 albums, While We Were Waiting, Make My Move, and now Sweet Sundown, he’s chalked up an unheard of 7 straight Canadian Top 10 country singles to start his career.

Jason, now a father of a 3 year-old Grace and year-old Carter took time off the road to talk to me.  

You’ve been taking Grace to the shows with you – is she having fun?

Oh yeah, she’s having a blast, but she’s becoming very protective of me. There’s a part in the show where we invite the women to come up on-stage, and she didn’t like that at all. If anyone is going to get up and dance with her dad, it’s going to be her.  

Down the line, if Grace wanted to do get involved with music, would that be OK with you?

Yeah I think it would be.  I’m going to be supportive of anything my kids want to do, but I’m definitely going to instill in them the seriousness and work ethic involved. I think that if you work really hard at anything you can be successful.  

Do you notice a difference between raising your kids in Nashville as opposed to your hometown in Canada?

Actually, I don’t think that there’s much difference. We do miss our family and close friends, but Nashville feels a lot like my hometown. We live in a small town outside of Nashville that has that same community feeling as back in Canada. I will say that I’ve noticed the kids picking up a little bit of that southern twang!  

What got you into music to begin with?

I will say that I think I’ve had a couple of lucky breaks. But, if you look to anyone who’s successful in their field, very rarely is it luck alone. It’s a lot of hard work and strategic thinking, especially in the music business. It’s all about networking, seizing opportunities and coming up with ideas about how to make your next move and get to that next level. For me, I always wanted to do this.  

How do you and the family deal with the issues of being on the road?

I’ve been very lucky to not miss any of the pivotal moments. I was there for both of my children’s births.  I know that’s not always the case, and I empathize with people in all genres of the music industry. If you’re a musician, or in a band, touring is your main source of income, and you’ve got to do it. Unfortunately you can’t just block out months of a year, when that time could be spent contributing food to the table.