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Blair Packham is a busy guy. He's a singer/songwriter who also writes music for film and television, he's a songwriting educator and he's also an engineer and producer, making and mixing recordings for a variety of artists, including himself. In addition to learning how to write about himself entertainingly in the third-person, Blair began writing songs at the age of seventeen and--though he sometimes wonders why--has kept writing for almost thirty years. When he was three not-bad-songs and one-shitty-demo in, he decided to quit school and go on the road. Touring northern Ontario, Canada for a couple of winters in two 'New Wave' cover bands convinced him that if he was going to play to hostile barrooms, he may as well play his own stuff. Soon finding that he couldn't make a living, Blair was lucky enough to land a job at a Toronto recording studio (Comfort Sound), where he was trained as an audio engineer and producer. Even in high school, Blair had been producing the recordings of fellow singer/songwriters and working at Comfort and being trained by owner Doug McClement--now one of Canada's top recording engineers--solidified his skills and ambitions. At that time Comfort had one of the only mobile multitrack recording trucks in Canada and they were busy working with many notable artists. Blair recorded or assisted the live recordings of R.E.M., Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elvis Costello, Split Enz, The Pretenders, Nick Lowe and Rockpile, Bryan Adams, The Psychedelic Furs, Aztec Camera and many, many more. In the studio, he worked with reggae greats Leroy Sibbles, Jackie Mitoo, Eek-A-Mouse, John Holt, and others.
Having access to free recording time was potentially very valuable--though it took Blair a year or so to figure it out--so in the spring of 1981 Blair formed a band with friend Danny Levy that they called The Jitters. They spent some years building a following in the Toronto area, and then across Canada, eventually releasing an indie video in 1984 called 'Take Me As I Am', which got tons of airplay (and it only cost $2500 to make!) By 1987, they were signed to Capitol-EMI Music of Canada and they released their debut album. Blair ultimately wrote five Canadian hits between 1987 and 1991, including Last of the Red Hot Fools, The Bridge Is Burning and Til the Fever Breaks (the latter two co-written with one of Blair's biggest influences, Jules Shear, who produced and co-wrote The Jitters' second album, called Louder Than Words). The Jitters continued to tour Canada constantly until their (sort-of amicable) split in the early 90s. (See more about the Jitters here: www.myspace.com/thejitterscanada)
Spending the early 90s producing other artists and getting into television music-writing, Blair finally collected his best songs to date and started recording an album in early 1999. He released his solo debut, called Everything That's Good, in May 2001. The Toronto Star called it "superbly-crafted...tuneful, honest, sharp-witted, and performed with style and confidence". Written over Blair's post-Jitters decade, friends like Ron Sexsmith and Craig Northey helped out with singing and playing, and songs from the collection appeared on TV soundtracks for shows such as Dawsons Creek. (Everything That's Good is available here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/blairpackham or at iTunes, Rhapsody and other digital services)
In late November 2003, ending a few years of writers block and enduring a midlife crisis brought on by the death of his father and, um, mid-life, Blair wrote and recorded his followup disc, Could've Been King, in Vancouver with pals Craig Northey, Doug Elliott and Pat Steward (from the late, lamented Odds). Together with ex-Doug and the Slugs Simon Kendall and engineer Colin Nairne, in three days they created an album with lots of delicious snapshots, like that of Bobby 'Boris' Pickett reprising his only hit in a Florida parking lot, and a blonde starlet, breasts spilling out of her dress at a press conference. Unlike most modern recordings, Blair's vocals were almost all "off the floor", sung "live" with the band, and not tinkered with or prettied up. Mixed by Jeremy Darby (Lou Reed, Ed Robertson, Andy Stochansky, Andy Kim), the album was released to critical acclaim in April 2004. (Could've Been King is available here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/blairpackham2 or at iTunes, Rhapsody and other digital services)
(Blair continues to create music for TV and film. See more about Blare! Music and Blair's TV & film composing here: www.myspace.com/blaremusic)
Still, his first love and main preoccupation remains songwriting. As former longtime vice-president of the Songwriters Association of Canada, Blair appears annually on the Bluebird North national tour in Canada, which he co-produces with Shari Ulrich. The Bluebird North features well-known and up-and-coming songwriters performing in a trading-songs-and-stories format, and has included appearances by Ron Sexsmith, Andy Kim ("Sugar, Sugar"), Tom Wilson (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings), Jane Siberry, Danny Michel, Steven Drake (Odds), the late Doug Bennett (Doug & the Slugs), Damhnait Doyle, Sarah Slean, Choclair, John Mann (Spirit of the West), Snow ("Informer") and many more. For two successive summers, Blair has led, with Rik Emmett, the Humber Songwriting Summer Workshop, a weeklong adventure in songwriting with 60 or so participants and many talented guests and faculty members. (For Humber Version 3.0, the 2007 workshop faculty will feature, among others, Blair's friend Jules Shear---an experience not to be missed) In January '07, Blair began scoring the second season of the now-canceled "The Jane Show", a half-hour comedy on Global Television in Canada and various other outlets around the world. Still producing recordings, however, in the fall of 2005, Blair produced a song for Andy Kim and Ron Sexsmith called "What Ever Happened To Christmas?" that rose to Number 5 on the Canadian national charts in December '05. Blair also completed mixing a full-length release for Andy Kim that will hopefully see the light of day in time for Christmas 2008.
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