De Keyzer delivering downtown blues
When you’ve been in the blues trenches as long as Jack De Keyzer, you’re bound to run into a few of your heroes.
Over the years, the British-born Canadian guitarist has played with Bo Diddley, jammed with Ronnie Hawkins and traded licks with John Hammond, Jr. For plenty of legends, De Keyzer was (and still is) a reliable session man.
“I was just talking to a friend the other day, she put on Etta James and said, ‘You ever heard of her version of Take it to the Limit?’ and I said I played it with her at Albert’s Hall for a week,” says De Keyzer on the line from his home in Clarington, Ont. “Etta James was probably one of the best people that I ever got to back up.”
James died in 2012. Bo Diddley passed in 2008. Others De Keyzer has played with, like Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith, are also gone. Each of them left a piece of their blues legacy with him, which he carries with pride doing about 110 shows a year, including this Saturday at Seneca Queen Theatre in Niagara Falls.
“I got to play with a lot of the first-generation pioneers, so yeah, I kind of consider myself carrying the flame,” he says. “I’m having a good time, and it’s nice to see a younger generation. This show on Saturday, we’ve got a young guy from the Niagara area named Spencer Mackenzie.”
Mackenzie, a 17-year-old guitarist from Ridgeway, recently won for best new artist/group of the year at the Maple Blues Awards, and won the Rising Star Award at the 2013 Niagara Music Awards.
“I think he was 15 when I met him,” says De Keyzer. “He’s a generation down, and he’s doing it right.”
For Canadian blues buffs, De
Keyzer has been doing it right for nearly 30 years as a solo artist. After a start with Toronto rockabilly group The Bobcats in the early ’80s, he went full blues for his first album, 1991’s Hard Working Man. The singles Blue Train and That’s the Way immediately established him in the national blues scene.
A decade of awards would follow, including Junos for blues album of the year in 2003 (6 String Lover) and 2010 (The Corktown Sessions), and top prize at the 2007 International Songwriting Competition for That’s the Only Time.
His relentless touring saw him play about 180 shows a year, which he has trimmed recently. It has allowed him time to start work on his next album, his 10th and first since 2012’s Electric Love.
“It seems to take me about five years to write enough songs for an album,” he says.
“I think the blues crowd still buys CDs. It’s obviously a commercial enterprise and artistic enterprise. I still love writing … so for me, I’ve got to get my music out there.”
Despite the workload, De Keyzer treats music like an ongoing education. It’s what keeps the shows, including his annual visit to Thorold’s Canal Bank Shuffle, from growing stale.
“Despite it being my occupation, it’s also my hobby,” he says. “When I’m at home, I’m practising and learning music. I study jazz music, so to me it’s like an ongoing obsession. There’s no limit to it, that’s the thing I love about it.”