Blair Packham (Toronto, Ontario)
Director
As a songwriter, Blair Packham started out wanting to be Paul McCartney. Then he wanted to be Curtis Mayfield. He then wanted to be either John Prine and Steve Goodman. Soon, Blair wanted to be Elvis Costello, any member of the Clash or Andy Partridge of XTC. For a while he wanted to be the lead singer of a band called The Jitters and had some success at this, between 1981 and 1991, when he and the band had some hit songs, including “Last of the Red Hot Fools” and “’Til the Fever Breaks”.
After that, Blair decided he wanted to just be Blair Packham, so he finally 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”. It was written and recorded with friends like Ron Sexsmith, Suzie Vinnick, and Craig Northey. In 2003, Blair wrote and recorded the follow-up disc, Could’ve Been King, in Vancouver with Craig and the rest of the Odds. In 2005, Blair co-produced, with Ron Sexsmith, “What Ever Happened to Christmas” for Andy Kim, and the song hit Number Five on the national AC charts.
Blair continues to want to be Blair and does so by being the co-host of CFRB 1010’s Rock Talk (heard Sunday nights at 6 p.m. in Toronto) and by running—with Rik Emmett—the annual Songstudio Summer Songwriting Workshop. for more information:
www.blairpackham.com www.myspace.com/blairpackham