Canadian country artists Jason Blaine, Chad Browlee and Jason McCoy are ready to saddle up for The Great Canadian Road Trip 2.0 tour, which is making a stop in Medicine Hat on March 12 at the Esplanade. All three artists will be performing each other's songs throughout the entire concert.--HANDOUT PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Jason Blaine says he can’t wait to get back on stage in front of an Alberta audience as he prepares to hit the dusty trail with fellow country artists Jason McCoy and Chad Brownlee for The Great Canadian Road Trip 2.0 Tour that will be making a stop in the Hat in March.
“Always love coming to Alberta,” says Blaine. “Love my Alberta people and the Alberta fans. I tour as much as I can and I’m really blessed to have had a big hit song on the radio … and the Medicine Hat country station played the heck out of it.”
In 2023, Blaine released the hit ‘The Road that Raised You Up,’ which made it to the top-10 charts on several Canadian country stations. He is also well known for his 2020 viral hit “Dance With my Daughter,” a staple song for dads and daughters to dance to at proms or weddings.
“This song has become the dark horse of my career, it’s lived a viral life on TikTok and YouTube and all over Spotify and Apple and Amazon music because young ladies, brides, have danced to this song all over Canada and all over the States with their dads on their weddings or different events,” explains Blaine. “And it was just a sweet song that I wrote 10 years ago for my little girls.”
The country singer’s big break came with the release of “They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That Anymore” in 2012 that was written for his grandfather and would end up winning the CCMA Single of the Year.
Blaine says they are switching things up a little bit to make this year’s tour more immersive for themselves and fans. The three country artists will stay on stage for the entire performance and even play parts in each other’s songs.
“We’re just hitting the stage together and we’re going to play each other’s songs. I’m learning some of these guitar solos as we speak and we’ve been having so much fun,” Blaine says. “We actually have two days of rehearsals before we hit the road, and it’s going to be such a cool experience for the fans and for us.”
Jokingly Blaine says learning portions of his peers’ music has presented its fair share of challenges.
“There’s a couple songs that have been giving me the most grief, I’ll tell you that.” he says. “We are going to be doing a version of ‘Eastbound and Down’ that Jason McCoy did with the road hammers, and the musicianship and the guitar playing in that song is insanely complex. So I’ve been challenged and having a lot of fun picking that apart … (Brownlee’s) just got a bunch of songs that I really love. He’s got a fun song called “Drunk Me” and there’s a guitar solo in there with some harmony parts.”
The Great Canadian Road Trip 2.0 tour will stop in Medicine Hat at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre on March 12 before heading to Calgary and Cranbrook.
“Let’s give the fans 110 per cent of us the whole time. There’s lots to sing along with and the guys are hilarious, too, both Chad and Jason have a great sense of humour.”
Following the tour in June, Blaine, who is from Pembroke, Ont., will host his 11th annual “Jason Blaine Celebrity Charity Golf Classic,” which has raised more than $1 million for more than 50 local charities in the community.
