Jack de Keyzer is a

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-born

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

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 themselve ...

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

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

, Canada's highest musical honour and seven times received

Maple Blues Awards The Maple Blues Awards are Canada’s blues awards, "honouring the finest in Canadian blues". They are the only comprehensive national best in blues awards program. The program's goal is to promote blues music across Canada, and to recognize ou ...

, 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 named him Guitarist of the Year twice.

Career

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

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, respectively, for ''6 String Lover'' and ''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

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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 musi ...

group that released two albums in the 1980s on

Attic Records Attic Records was a Canadian independent record label,"Dance clubs go wild for jungle"
''Toronto St ...

. 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 ...

. As a solo artist, he has released eleven CDs and one DVD and has appeared as a

session guitarist A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a record ...

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 and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...

Otis Rush Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter who has been long revered as one of the creators of modern Chicago blues; though he was respected and praised, the success he sought e ...

, John Hammond, Jr.,

Ronnie Hawkins Ronald Cornett Hawkins (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American rock and roll singer, 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 Michael John "Duke" Robillard (born October 4, 1948) is an American guitarist and singer. He founded the band Roomful of Blues and was a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Although Robillard is known as a rock and blues guitarist, he also play ...

, Robert Gordon, Willy Big Eyes Smith,

Bo Diddley Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy ...

, and

Blue Rodeo Blue Rodeo is a Canadian 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, and colla ...

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

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'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 chemic ...

'', '' My Father's Shoes'') 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. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

's son, Ben, received a guitar lesson from him at the request of First Lady

Laureen Harper Laureen Ann Harper ( Teskey; born June 23, 1963) is a Canadian graphic designer. She is married to Spouse of the Prime Minister of Canada, Canada's 22nd prime minister, Stephen Harper and has two children, Benjamin Harper and Rachel Harper. Li ...

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

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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)