Just added in April 2008: The Bridge Is Burning (1990), featuring Blair, Danny Levy, Matthew Greenberg and Peter Nunn. This song was co-written with and produced by Jules Shear. The video was directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, and was a MuchMusic staple in Canada back in the, er, day (Ed. note: "I hate that expression").

As of early January '08 Blair has posted many Jitters videos on YouTube, including the independent "Take Me As I Am" from 1984. Also posted: a rarely-seen in-house promotional film used to introduce The Jitters to Capitol Records Canada in 1987. Other clips include very lo-fi footage from the downstairs El Mocambo (lots of unreleased Jitters songs) and TV appearances in Canada and the UK.

HUMBER SUMMER SONGWRITING WORKSHOP  2008 

Toronto, July 19 - 25, 2008

The upcoming HSSW dates have been announced: July 19 - 25. Many exciting changes are in the works, to accommodate returning students and to interest new ones. Please check out www.songwritingathumber.com for further information.

May 10 The Pilot, Toronto: Blair appears with a band, playing (gasp!) covers. It will be fun, and funny (how many times can you play "All The Young Dudes" and not crack up ,eventually??) Lots of dancing and so forth, with lots of people who went to Jarvis Collegiate Institute in the 70s and 80s. $10 at the door. 8 PM doors open, 9 PM band starts.

May 17 The Rivoli, Toronto: Blair opens for ex-Northern Pike Jay Semko, 9:30 PM.

Blair went to Chicago

Blair went to Chicago in mid-April, the great Midwestern city that is the birthplace of the skyscraper, the latter-day home of Muddy Waters, the home of Steve Goodman, John Prine, Saul Bellow, Studs Terkel, Emma Goldman, the Wobblies, and to much  American history (both great and shameful). Blair played an impromptu set at the Bird's Nest in Lincoln Park on Friday April 18, including NV, the song he and Arlene Bishop wrote together in 1997. Saturday April 19 at The Spot, as part of International Pop Overthrow 2008, Blair palyed another acoustic set, dedicating his performance to Steve Goodman, an early hero.

Blair went to British Columbia for three acoustic shows in February. The first was as part of Just Singin' Round,  ther monthly singer/songwriter event held on behalf of a different charity every time. At the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park,  the gig also featured the wonderful Coco Love Alcorn and her sultry voice, plus Christie Grace with Daryl Jahnke, Melanie Dekker, Mark James Fortin, and Yvonne McSkimming. The music was wonderful, and so was the food. And the audience was a DREAM--attentive, full of humour and warmth.

Two days later, Blair will appeared at The Roundhouse Community Arts  & Recreation Centre, playing another Bluebird North, along with the aforementioned Coco Love Alcorn, the-also-wonderful Craig Northey, Kelly Brock, Craig Zurba and Shari Ulrich. Again, a great audience, and some amazing music.

Blair then did a full set at The Main along with Taylor Harp(myspace.com/taylorharpmusic)

Wish I'd Written That in January '08

Guests were Alan Frew (Glass Tiger), Fergus Hambleton (Sattalites), Lee Whalen, and the indescribable-but-amazing Bob Snider.

"Wish I'd Written That!" is all about covers. Great songwriters are asked to perform songs that rocked their world, made them laugh, made them cry, made them think, or maybe even made them say "I wish I'D written that!"

Past guests have included Greg Godovitz, Liam Titcomb, Gregg Lawless, Lynn Miles. Mia Sheard, Allister Bradley, Jim Creegan (Barenaked Ladies), Eric Schenkman (Spin Doctors), Wendell Ferguson, and Dean McTaggart ("Dark Horse", "Birmingham" for Amanda Marshall).

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Blair enjoyed his short set at Graffiti's in Toronto's Kensington Market as part of Songwriters Unite! on Friday December 7, as well as the opening set he did for Greg Wyard at Toronto's venerable Cameron House, December 10.

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At The Rivoli in Toronto on November 17, Blair appeared with a band to play his particular brand of "unpopular pop". As part of the International Pop Overthrow festival, and presented by Bullseye Records, it was the rocking-est late-afternoon show ever been gave, featuring former Dead Boy David Quinton on drums and Terence Gowan on bass.

"It was great to see so many familiar faces in the audience," said Blair, mopping his brow. "I should play in the late afternoon more often." The set featured songs from both Blair Packham discs, plus an old Jitters song that hadn't been performed since about 1985, "Stick It In (And Give It A Twist)". Loud,  irreverent, and (hopeully) charming, Blair, Terence and David intend to do it again soon.

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On October 24th, Blair hosted the Justice For Children and Youth benefit for Street Youth Legal Services at Hugh's Room. Along with musical friends Mia Sheard, Simon Law, Ryan Granville-Martin, John Teshima, and Jen Schaffer, Blair joined Lucian Thomas and the re-formed (not reformed, they're still bad boys) Lowest of the Low. Thanks to all the friends and fans who came out.

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As of June 2007, Blair has joined The League of Rock, as a corporate songwriter coach. Along with Erica Ehm, and Michael Zweig, Blair coaches corporate participants in songwriting. The topics are decidedly NON-corporate, however, as the "students" tackle subjects like drinking and drunkenness, debauchery, transvestitism,  drinking and more drinking. Hi-brow? No. Fun? Yes

see www.leagueofrock.com

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Blair is assembling songs for his  third full-length recording. He has nearly six finished songs, with another five on the go. Though no producer is in place yet, Blair is excited. "Danny Michel offered to produce a recording for me last year, but I didn't have the songs yet. I'm getting closer, and when I have them all, I'll check Danny's schedule and see if he's still interested." He continues, "I've got lots of ideas, lots of songs started, album titles, cover ideas--it's all starting to flow."

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When he wasn't writing songs and playing gigs , Blair was busy with all manner of other musical projects. Scoring 26 episodes of Global Television's "The Jane Show" was perhaps chief among them. From December of 2005 until May of 2007, Blair worked hard helping to bring out even more humour from the wonderfully-conceived and -written shows. "What a great experience," says Blair. "I can't believe the fun we had putting the musical touches on that show. The producers and the show's creators (Teresa Pavlinek and Ralph Chapman) were truly wonderful to work with. They made me feel part of the creative team, not just a necessary evil or an after tthought like so many film and TV people  treat the composer."   Regretably, Global decided to cancel production on "Jane" in June of 2007.

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In addition to his TV and film work (at Christmas 2005, Blair also scored a feature documentary called "Move Your World" about youth AIDS in Africa) Blair continued his work as Program Coordinator of the Humber Songwriting Summer Workshop. Year Three under his belt, Blair was responsible for booking all of the workshop guests, who included Jules Shear, Murray McLauchlan, Tom Wilson, Lynn Miles, David Steinberg, Christopher Ward, Mia Sheard and Ember Swift.  Talks are already in progress for Humber Year Four, (jJuly 19 - 25, 2008) with more great guests and more songwriting workshopping, collaboration and performance opportunities. Check out www.myspace.com/humbersongwriting for more information.

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The Bluebird North songwriter series that Blair produced in Toronto for the last ten years has finally come to  an end. "When we started, songwriter circles were pretty rare in Toronto. There were a few, like Jason Collett's Radio Mondays, and a handful of others, but the Bluebird really led the way, eventually becoming a touring show that crossed the country six times. Over the years, guests included Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry, Joel Plaskett, Haydain Neale, Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, Choclair, Danny Michel, Sarah Slean, Damhnait Doyle, Kardinal Offishall, Dala, Peter Elkas, Charlie Major, Russell DeCarle, and many, many others. It is sad to see it go, but the decision was mutual between the Songwriters Association of Canada (the show's sponsor) and Blair, due mainly to  heavy competition from other varied events. "There are now so many multi-act shows in Toronto and other centres, from Michael Wrycraft's "Girls Do Boys/Boys Do Girls" series, to my own "Wish I'd Written That!" show."

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Blair still has copies of Could've Been King (available here).  for sale, and of course it's also available at iTunes and via CDBaby.com. Recorded in a whirlwind three days at the end of November 2003, Blair joined Craig Northey, Pat Steward and Doug Elliott, all late of Canada's gone-but-not-forgotten Odds ("Someone Who's Cool"), and Simon Kendall (Doug & The Slugs) at Baker Street Studio in North Vancouver. Colin Nairne engineered the eleven songs with assistance by Mike Rogerson. Other guests included Kevin Fox (cello), Michael Zweig (harmony vocals), Perry White (baritone and tenor sax) and Danny Michel (lead guitar and Hendrix-like mumblings). Never one to shy from a bit of "fairy dust" production, Blair and Jeremy Darby even added a choir to the title track, with the help of Tamara Williamson, Mia Sheard, Imali Perera, Monique Barry, Lori Cullen and Arlene Bishop. Fo r a look at some session photos, click here. Could've Been King features songs about betrayal, failure, death and destruction, going insane, and the general unfairness of life. And those are the happy songs.

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January 31, 2004 saw Blair once again launching another national Bluebird North tour. The Bluebird North is a regularly-held songwriters show that is well-established in Toronto and Vancouver, but it has only visited other cities in Canada a few times. Sitting in a row, each writer takes turns telling stories and singing songs, in an evening that's spontaneous and inspiring. Taking place over three weeks, the 2004 tour visited fourteen cities: Halifax, Montreal, Wakefield, Ottawa, Kingston, Guelph, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Spruce Grove, Calgary, Banff and North Vancouver. The artists on the road in 2004 included Stephen Fearing, Andy Stochansky, Haydain Neale (jacksoul), Tom Wilson (Blackie & the Rodeo Kings), Lennie Gallant, Russell deCarle (Prairie Oyster), Sue Foley, Lynn Miles, Alana Levandoski, Joel Kroeker, and Tal Bachman ("She's So High"), as well as hosts Blair Packham and Shari Ulrich. For a look at some tour photos, click here. In the past, the tour has featured the likes of Sarah Slean, Jian Ghomeshi, John Mann (Spirit of the West), Neil Osborne (54:40), Danny Michel, Arlene Bishop, Roy Forbes, Snow, Damhnait Doyle and Choclair.

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The spring and summer of 2003 were spent making music: Blair played in many places in Canada, solo or with his trio.

Owen Sound, Ontario, a town that is always welcoming, saw two visits by Blair & partner Arlene Bishop, one to the Summerfolk Festival in August, and the other to the launch of Winterfolk '03.

Another music festival that hosted Blair and Arlene in the summer of 2003 was Folk On the Rocks, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The trip up north was long and arduous: flying first to Ottawa, the pair then transferred planes and headed to Iqaluit on Baffin Island, near the Arctic Circle. After a stop at Rankin Inlet, more than twelve hours later, Blair and Arlene landed in Yellowknife, where the sun set just after midnight and rose again at about 3 in the morning. Talk about disorienting! The other acts featured at Folk on the Rocks were the excellent Hawksley Workman and band, bluesy Sue Foley and her band, and the Cajun spicyness of Swamparella. Closing the festival was UK act Horace X; their Day-Glo costumes and funky hyper-kinetic rhythms were anything but traditional folk music! The audience, and Arlene in particular, loved it. There was much dancing in the midnight sun, along with swatting of the bird-sized mosquitoes.

In addition to traveling, Blair appeared a few times at hometown pub fave C'est What, usually with Terence Gowan and Sean Kilbride in tow. Drunkenness often ensued, and a good time was had by whomever happened by.

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Blair scored two feature films, with Terence Gowan leading the way. The first, in 2002, is a funny crime caper called TRIGGERMEN which stars Neil Morrissey, Adrian Dunbar, Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Rappaport. The co-written score features a slinky, funky guitar-and-Wurlitzer-piano combo that perfectly suits the action onscreen. Morrissey and Dunbar are particularly engaging in TRIGGERMEN, both with a sort of dowdy screen presence that adds to the comedy. Morrissey's work is well-known without Neil actually becoming famous, by the way: he's the voice of international kids show sensation "Bob the Builder."

(Speaking of international kids sensations, in 2002, Arlene and Blair co-wrote the theme to BEYBLADE, a show about battling tops that is aired around the world)

The next film Blair scored with Terence was HOLLYWOOD NORTH--which was in limited release in selected cinemas across Canada. The film, a story of how a Canadian tax-shelter movie was made and the disasters that ensue, stars Academy Award winner Alan Bates, Matthew Modine, and Jennifer Tilly. It was directed by Peter O'Brian, who is probably best known for his production work on such seminal Canuck films as MY AMERICAN COUSIN and THE GREY FOX.

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On September 15, 2001 Blair played an opening set for Martina Sorbara at Toronto's Rivoli. Telling the audience that Arlene was at home in labour (which was sort of true--by September 15, the contractions had begun!), Blair called her on his cell phone from the stage. The audience of a hundred or so people said "Hi, Arlene!" and "Congratulations!" (Baby Owen Jupiter was born September 25, 2001 at about 8:20 PM).

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