Guitarist Sinclair had respect in Canadian music circles
Guitarist David Sinclair wasn’t a household name. But he quietly put together one of the most impressive resumés in Canadian music.
Some might recall him as the guitarist and singer in 1980s hitmakers Straight Lines and Body Electric. But he also had long stints with Sarah McLachlan and k.d. lang, played on a staggering number of recording sessions and performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Sinclair died Dec. 18, 2018, at his Burnaby home after a battle with cancer. He was 69. A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday at St. Francis de Sales School, 6656 Balmoral St. in Burnaby.
David Walter Sinclair was born in Vancouver, grew up in Kitsilano and became a gigging musician as a teen.
“He started playing in clubs when he was really, really young, like when he shouldn’t have been there — the old strip clubs and stuff in the Downtown Eastside,” his wife Christine said. “I think he was about 16 when he started doing that.”
“I think the first time I worked with him was when he auditioned as a singer for the Let’s Go show in the late '60s,” longtime cohort Bob Buckley said. “He became a regular singer on the show for a year or two, back in the days when the CBC had money. Then he had his band Sunshyne and I had my band Spring.”
Sunshyne’s lineup also contained the late producer Bruce Fairbairn and songwriter Jim Vallance.
“I met David in the summer of 1973 when I joined Sunshyne, a jazz-rock-Dixieland fusion band,” Vallance said via email.
“You had to play in any style to be in that band, and no one was more qualified than David. He was a very disciplined musician. He’d practise hours every day, lightning-fast scales up and down the fretboard. He made it look easy, but that was deceptive, because he worked hard ...
“The other deceptive thing about David was his quiet demeanour. The truth is, he had a defiant streak. He wasn’t afraid to question authority.”
Sunshyne evolved into Prism, but by that point Sinclair had left, although he played on several Prism albums. Sinclair and Buckley then formed Straight Lines, which scored several hits, including Letting Go.
They joined former Trooper keyboard player Frank Ludwig in Body Electric, but when the group’s label folded in the late '80s, the band soon followed. So Sinclair became one of the top session musicians in Canada.
A partial list of the acts he recorded with includes McLachlan, Michael Bublé, Daniel Pewter, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bryan Adams, Rita MacNeil, Paul Janz, Valdy, Susan Jacks, Terry Jacks, the Irish Rovers, Gary Fjellgaard and Barry Greenfield.
“David was perfect doing solo acoustic guitar or doing raging, turned-up-to-10 heavy metal guitar, and everything in between,” Buckley said. “I’ve done jazz gigs with him, and probably several hundred recording sessions, television shows and things like that. Whatever you would call him to do, he could figure out how to do it.”
No matter how successful his career was, he always played smaller shows with smaller acts.
“Jane (Mortifee) said she was always amazed at a world-class musician (like him) would come and do these little gigs with her,” Christine Sinclair said. “But he loved it; that’s what he loved to do.”
In recent years he had a successful duo with Keith Bennett, played with two of his kids in Shutterfly and made an album with his wife, Grandma’s Shoes. His recorded legacy includes his recently reissued 1972 solo record, Take My Hand, two CDs with Bennett, two with Shutterfly and two excellent Christmas CDs.
In September, Sinclair received a star on Granville Street after being named to the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame. He leaves his wife, children Taryn, Jaime-Gregg and Zachary, as well as two grandchildren.