Jack de Keyzer is a British-born

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He has twice won the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

, Canada's highest musical honour, and seven times received Maple Blues Awards, including for Blues Album of the Year in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. ''Real Blues Magazine'' crowned him Live Act Of The Year in 2001, and has twice named him Guitarist of the Year.

Career

Jack de Keyzer received Juno Awards for Blues Album of the Year in 2003 and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, respectively for ''6 String Lover'' and for ''The Corktown Sessions''. He also won first prize in the 2007 International Songwriting Competition for his song "That's the Only Time". His career has spanned four decades. He is a former member of

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

band The Bopcats – a

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

group, who released two albums in the 1980s on Attic Records. After leaving The Bopcats, he became one of The Rock Angels, releasing an independent EP in 1983. His solo work began in 1989. His first CD release, ''Hard Working Man'', was produced by Stacey Heydon. The album made a name for de Keyzer in the Canadian blues industry through the successful singles "Blue Train" (Produced by Danny Greenspoon), "That's the Way" and "Nothing In the World". The single "That's the Way" reached No. 13 on

Rock Radio Rock Radio was a brand of radio stations in the United Kingdom owned by GMG Radio. 96.3 Rock Radio was the first station in the network. It operated in West Central Scotland. The station was launched on the frequency which was formerly used by ...

. He has released eleven CDs and one DVD as a solo artist and has appeared as a

session guitarist Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

on hundreds of recordings. As a session guitarist he worked with

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, sh ...

Otis Rush Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s art ...

, John Hammond, Jr.,

Ronnie Hawkins Ronald Cornett Hawkins (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American singer-songwriter, long based in Canada, whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He ...

, Duke Robillard,

Robert Gordon Robert Gordon may refer to: Entertainment * Robert Gordon (actor) (1895–1971), silent-film actor * Robert Gordon (director) (1913–1990), American director * Robert Gordon (singer) (1947–2022), American rockabilly singer * Robert Gordon (scr ...

, Willy Big Eyes Smith, Bo Diddley &

Blue Rodeo Blue Rodeo is a Canadian country rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have released 16 full-length studio albums, four live recordings, one greatest hits album, and two video/DVDs, along with multiple solo albums, side projects, a ...

. Jack de Keyzer's songs have also appeared in video, rock & blues radio charts, other artists' CDs (

Prairie Oyster Prairie Oyster was a Canadian country music group from Toronto, Ontario. They were named Country Group or Duo of the year six times by both the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) and the Juno Awards. The band also won the Bud Country Fan ...

's platinum CD ''Everyone Knows''), TV soundtracks, as well as in films (''

The Michelle Apartments ''The Michelle Apartments'' is a 1995 Canadian black comedy film directed by John Pozer and written by Ross Weber. The film stars Henry Czerny as Alex Hartwell, a government auditor sent to the small town of Walton to review the books of a chemica ...

'', ''

My Father's Shoes "My Father's Shoes" is a song by English jazz-funk band Level 42, released in 1992 as a single from the 1991 album, ''Guaranteed (Level 42 album), Guaranteed''. It was released in only two countries—United Kingdom and Spain. The music video is ...

'') and on television ('' Traders'', ''

PSI Factor ''Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal'' is a Canadian science fiction drama television series which was filmed in and around Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and aired 88 episodes over four seasons from 1996 to 2000. In 1996, Christopher Chacon an ...

''). In 2009, de Keyzer received accolades from two very Canadian institutions. First, Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

's son, Ben, received a guitar lesson from him by request from first lady

Laureen Harper Laureen Ann Harper ( Teskey; born June 23, 1963) is a Canadian graphic designer. She is married to Canada's 22nd prime minister, Stephen Harper. Life and career The eldest of three, Laureen Ann Teskey was born in Turner Valley, a rural town so ...

at the Prime Minister's residence. Later that year de Keyzer was also named Great Canadian Blues Artist of the Year by CBC radio listeners.

Discography

* 1991 ''Hard Working Man'' * 1994 ''Wild at Heart'' * 1999 ''Down in the Groove'' – Jazz Report Award for Blues Album of the Year 2000; Maple Blues Award for Blues Album of the Year 2000 * 2003 ''6 String Lover'' – Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year 2003 * 2005 ''Silver Blues'' – Durham Region Music Award for Blues Recording of the Year 2005 * 2006 ''Silver Blues'' (DVD) * 2007 ''Blues Thing'' – Juno Award nomination for Album of the Year * 2009 ''The Corktown Sessions'' – Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year 2010 * 2012 ''Electric Love'' Juno Award nomination for Album of the Year * 2014 ''Voodoo Boogie'' * 2017 ''The Best of Jack de Keyzer (Volume One)'' * 2018 ''Checkmate'' * 2020 ''Tribute''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Keyzer, Jack Canadian blues guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian session musicians Musicians from London Living people Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year winners Year of birth missing (living people)