Greg Keelor

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Greg Keelor

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OC}}

| background = solo_singer

| image = Greg-keelor.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_name = James Gregory Keelor

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1954|08|29}}

| birth_place = Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

| origin =

| genre = {{hlist|Pop/Rock|Rock|Country|Alternative country|Roots rock|Folk rock|Psychedelia|Americana}}

| occupation = Musician, songwriter, record producer

| years_active = 1987–present

| label =

| associated_acts = Blue Rodeo, The Unintended

| website = {{URL|gregkeelor.com}}

}}

James Gregory Keelor, {{post-nominals|country=CAN|size=100%|OC}} (born Francis McIntyre; August 29, 1954) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as a member of the band Blue Rodeo, where he shares song writing and vocal duties with Jim Cuddy. Keelor has also released three solo albums and appeared as a guest musician on albums by Crash Vegas and Melissa McClelland. He participated, along with Rick White and members of The Sadies, in the supergroup The Unintended.

Got his start singing in TMR in the Mount Royal Boys catholic choir

Early life

Keelor was born Francis McIntyre in Inverness, Nova Scotia, on August 29, 1954.{{cite web|url=http://maplemusic.com/artists/gke/bio.asp|title=Bio – Greg Keelor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020225055927/http://maplemusic.com/artists/gke/bio.asp|access-date=August 30, 2018|archive-date=February 25, 2002}} Though he didn't know until adulthood, his birth parents had put him up for adoption. Keelor was adopted at age three and raised in Montréal.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/greg-keelor/|title=Greg Keelor|access-date=August 30, 2018}}

Keelor attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute, and it was there that he befriended football teammate Jim Cuddy in 1971. After graduation, Keelor, Cuddy and a group of college friends, in search of adventure, traveled to Western Canada in a rundown old school bus. The bus broke down in Saskatchewan, and Keelor some way or another ended up in Lake Louise where he worked for some time. It was in Lake Louise that he learned to play the guitar and first considered a career as a musician.

He started singing in Montreal in the Mount Royal Catholic Boys Choir, in Town of Mount Royal, where he lived and attended High School until 1972, when he moved to Toronto.

Career

Keelor has been friends with Jim Cuddy since both attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute high school. When they both had finished university, they decided to form a band which they called the Hi-Fi's, along with Jim Sublett on drums and Malcolm Schell playing bass. The band released a single in 1980 featuring "I Don't Know Why (You Love Me)" and on the B side "Look What You've Done". The record was not a big commercial success, though, and when they couldn't get a record deal in Toronto, they headed off to New York City.{{cite web|url=http://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=308|title=Review of Hi-Fi's I Don't Know Why (You Love Me)|website=canuckistanmusic.com|publisher=Canuckistan Music|last1=Panontin|first1=Michael|access-date=February 14, 2015}} A while after returning to Toronto from New York, Keelor and Cuddy formed Blue Rodeo.

Keelor is also a producer, having co-produced Blue Rodeo's Lost Together and solo-producing Cuff the Duke's albums Way Down Here and Morning Comes.

Keelor also composed an original soundtrack for the 2010 Canadian Western comedy Gunless.{{cite web| url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/blue_rodeo-better_off_as_we_are| title=Blue Rodeo- Better Off As We Are| work=Exclaim Magazine| access-date=November 10, 2017}}

In 2000, Keelor and Blue Rodeo bandmate Jim Cuddy were the recipients of the National Achievement Award at the annual SOCAN Awards held in Toronto.{{Cite web |url=https://www.socan.ca/about/awards/2000-socan-awards |title=2000 Socan Awards | Socan |access-date=August 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916155756/https://www.socan.ca/about/awards/2000-socan-awards |archive-date=September 16, 2016 |url-status=dead }}

In 2013, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada along with Jim Cuddy, "for their contributions to Canadian music and for their support of various charitable causes".{{cite web|url=http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=15482&lan=eng|title=Governor General Announces 90 New Appointments to the Order of Canada|date=December 30, 2013}}

In 2018, he contributed the song "Unprovable" to the compilation album The Al Purdy Songbook.[https://nowtoronto.com/music/features/al-purdy-songbook/ "Canadian poet Al Purdy inspires songs by Jason Collett, Sarah Harmer and more"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203084800/https://nowtoronto.com/music/features/al-purdy-songbook/ |date=February 3, 2019 }}. Now, January 22, 2019.

In 2024, Keelor and Cuddy were inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.David Friend, [https://globalnews.ca/news/10785133/canadian-songwriters-hall-of-fame-sarah-mclachlan-tom-cochrane/ "Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame: Sarah McLachlan, Tom Cochrane inducted"]. Global News, September 29, 2024.

Discography

=Albums=

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Album

!CAN

1996

|Gone

|align="center"|95

2005

|Seven Songs for Jim

2006

|Aphrodite Rose

2010

|Gunless- The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

2010

|Down and Out in Upalong (with Travis Good and Gordon Pinsent)

2018

|Last Winter

2021

|Share The Love

=Singles=

class="wikitable"

! width="auto"| Year

! width="auto"| Title

! width="auto"| CAN AC

! width="auto"| Album

1997

| "White Marble Ganesh"

| align="center"| 44

| Gone

=Music videos=

class="wikitable"

! width="auto"| Year

! width="auto"| Video

! width="auto"| Director

scope="row"| 1997

| scope="row"| "White Marble Ganesh"

2018

| scope="row"| "City Is A Symphony"

| Christopher Mills

2021

|"Wonder"

|Michael Hurcomb

=Producer=

class="wikitable"

! width="auto"| Year

! width="auto"| Title

! width="auto"| Artist

2009

| Way Down Here

| Cuff the Duke

2011

| Morning Comes

| Cuff the Duke

2014

| Kitchen Knife

| Devin Cuddy Band

References

External links

[http://www.gregkeelor.com/ Greg Keelor] official website
{{IMDb name|0444562}}
{{Discogs artist|Greg Keelor}}
[http://www.canadianbands.com/Greg%20Keelor.html Entry at canadianbands.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021181237/http://www.canadianbands.com/Greg%20Keelor.html |date=October 21, 2021 }}
[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/greg-keelor Entry at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca]

Category:1954 births

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian rock singers

Category:Canadian country singer-songwriters

Category:Canadian male singer-songwriters

Category:Canadian rock guitarists

Category:Canadian country guitarists

Category:Canadian male guitarists

Category:Singers from Nova Scotia

Category:Officers of the Order of Canada

Category:People from Inverness County, Nova Scotia

Category:Canadian country rock musicians