Steve Strongman is a Canadian blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

, singer and songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 originally from Kitchener, Ontario

Kitchener, Ontario

The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...

. He has released two full length blues album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s, Honey and Blues in Colour.

Career

Strongman grew up in Kitchener, and started playing guitar at 16. He studied under blues veteran Mel Brown

Mel Brown

Mel Brown was an American-born blues guitarist.Brown was nominated for a Juno Award in both 2001 and 2002.Brown, a long-time smoker, died aged 69, on March 20, 2009, in Kitchener, Ontario, of complications from emphysema....

, but later played country, rock, and pop. He has played with other Canadian musicians such as Roy Clark, Jeff Healey

Jeff Healey

Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock vocalist and guitarist who attained musical and personal popularity, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...

, and Tal Bachman

Tal Bachman

Talmage "Tal" Bachman is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his late 1999 hit, "She's So High," from his self-titled 1999 album.-Biography and musical career:...

. He eventually formed Plasticine with co-frontman Rob Szabo. Their video "No One" received extensive play on Much Music. They released two albums, 1999's self-titled CD and 2001's Public Address System. They appeared on national television on Open Mike with Mike Bullard

Open Mike with Mike Bullard

Open Mike with Mike Bullard was a Canadian late-night talk show which was broadcast live from 1997 to 2003 on CTV and on The Comedy Network in primetime. It was hosted by comedian Mike Bullard and initially taped at a studio at the back of Wayne Gretzky's restaurant in Toronto, Ontario before CTV...

, but folded shortly after when their label collapsed. Following the band's demise, Strongman opted to be the lead guitar player for Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

 recording artist Kazzer

Kazzer

Mark Kasprzyk better known by his stage name, Kazzer, is a Canadian musician whose work ranges from Rap Rock to Alternative Rock. He is best known for the song "Pedal to the Metal", which was aired regularly on MuchMusic and MTV Europe, played on contemporary hit radio, hot adult contemporary,...

, giving him the opportunity to tour in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Strongman relocated to Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

 and in 2007 released Honey, his first blues album. The album, consisting of eleven tracks including nine originals, earned good reviews and earned him a Maple Blues Award nomination as well as four nominations at the 2007 Hamilton Music Awards. He toured with his band playing blues clubs across the country, with stops at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Ottawa Blues Festival and the Tremblant International Blues Festival. He opened for Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

 in Hamilton in 2008. He also supported well-known slide guitar player Sonny Landreth

Sonny Landreth

Sonny Landreth is an American blues musician from southwest Louisiana who is especially known as a slide guitar player. He was born in Canton, Mississippi, but soon after, his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, before settling in Lafayette, Louisiana...

 on his only Canadian date in Toronto, Ontario.

Strongman released his second album Blues in Colour in 2010.

External links

• Official site