8BN-DeKeyzer Vol.1
29 January 2018
David McCabe
The Best of Jack De Keyzer Volume 1
Photo credit: David McDonald
I have only a few “Best Of” or “Greatest Hits” compilations in my collection, and the ones there are, are almost all because of songs that are on them, that cannot be found elsewhere, perhaps because it was never released on any other album, or the album it came from is no longer available. My preference is to have those albums, and not need a collection album.
This album is one of those exceptions because there are three unreleased songs here, plus songs from the early part of his career, before I became a fan. The collection shows off his talents with the guitar playing different styles, which gives him his own unique blend of soul, blues, and jazz.
As well, the liner notes contain Jack’s personal notes about each tune, which I find a very nice touch.
The lead track, “Music is the Food of Love”, is a big band style, Jack says it pretty much sums up his love for those three styles mentioned above. Next comes a Latin blues piece called “Soul Lover”, “inspired by the Chicago Blues and Mexican heat”.
A classic driving blues is next, “Ride With Me”. “Blues Thing”, from the album of the same name, is “somewhere between Hi, Stax, Memphis, and Whitby, Ontario”. Followed by a song that you will hear him do in a lot of live shows, “Engine Trouble”. This is the original recorded at Liquid Sound in Toronto, and on the album “Six String Lover”. That is followed by “High on Your Love”, a Stax/Stones soul rocker.
“That’s The Only Time” won the International Blues Competition’s first prize for blues composition, which “kept me in guitar strings for a long time.” He also admits “I think it is one of my best lyrics, but damn if I can remember them all!!”
“Gamblers Blues” is a superbly done “rollicking nod to the King”, and features a young Tyler Yarema on piano. The next tune, “Cotton Candy”, goes back to his Bobcat rock and roll days, where he also shines.
“Who Let The Cat (Out Of the Bag)” is performed by a collection of Toronto and Chicago blues legends, including Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums, and Bob Stroger on bass. From the Juke Joint Rockers” album, “Nothing In The World”, one of his “favorite and most personal” tunes, was a Country hit for him in the late ‘90s. This version is the R&B version recorded live at Hugh’s Room on “Silver Blues”.
The next song is the first unreleased song on the album, recorded at a live performance of the 2014 Waterfront Blues Festival. “My Love Has Gone” is a slow blues that is one of the better tracks on this album in my opinion. Probably worth the price just for this one song.
Another rocking tune recorded live from “Corktown Sessions”, is “The Way That I Love You”, another staple of his live shows. Next we have another unreleased song, “Hard Working Man”, a cool funky number that was cut from the final version of the “Silver Blues” album.
Next we have a song from his rockabilly days, 79-85, called “Rock ‘n Roll Girl”, also recorded live, by the CBC, and previously unreleased.
And the last song of this seventy minute collection is his first hit, “Blue Train”, from 1991. Dedicated to and about Muddy Waters.
Jack De Keyzer is one of the hardest working musicians in Canadian Blues; he tours constantly. His shows are consistently amongst the best you will see, I highly recommend you get this album, and go see him whenever you can.
Oh, yeah, the best thing about this album? It is Volume 1. :-)