Dutch Mason’s career began at the age of 14, playing drums in a Dixieland band, and extended for the next half-century, as the chain-smoking, hard-drinking bandleader crisscrossed Canada and became an evangelist for the blues who found converts at almost every stop.

Norman Byron Mason was born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1938. By his early teens he left Dixieland behind and concentrated on re-creating the rockabilly sound of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Leading the Wreckers and then the Esquires he worked the dance halls of eastern Canada, and hit the road for good at 19.

On hearing B. B. King’s Sweet Little Angel for the first time, Mason switched gears and devoted himself to the blues. This was not considered a smart career move, since blues had a very small following in Canada in the late 1950s, but it was a decision that came to define Mason and his legacy.

His first album, Live at the Candlelight (1968), featured a photograph of the Halifax nightclub on the cover but was recorded at a local high school. The band received a bucket of chicken as payment.

The Dutch Mason Blues Band toured relentlessly during the 1970s and 1980s, playing their way from coast to coast. Mason, with his trademark cigarette and droopy moustache, led the way, both onstage and off, as the band became known as the hardest-drinking act on the blues circuit.

Playing honky-tonks and roadhouses across rural Canada, the earthy, unpretentious and hard-living Mason took to the life of a touring bluesman as if he had been born to the task. Mason’s onstage and backstage antics became as celebrated as his gritty guitar work and gravelly voice. One evening he appeared before his public clad only in a bath towel.

Mason shared the stage with such blues immortals as John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Buddy Guy and Lightning Hopkins, and often was the only white act on the bill. On a few occasions the Dutch Mason Blues Band opened for B. B. King, who one night referred to Mason as “the King of the Blues”. The compliment, Canadianised by a bandmate, became his moniker — “the Prime Minister of the Blues”.

Mason, who was not a prolific composer, released more than a dozen albums, largely consisting of his distinctive versions of blues chestnuts with the occasional contribution from bandmates.

Arthritis prevented him from playing the guitar in the early 1990s but he soldiered on as a vocalist, releasing I’m Back, his first album in a decade, in 1991 to very favourable reviews, and maintaining his heavy touring schedule.

By then an elder statesman, Mason enjoyed the role of irascible, entertaining curmudgeon whose bark was far more dangerous than his bite. As his health continued to decline, largely the result of the excesses of his more youthful days, Mason was forced to reduce his public appearances and was eventually confined to a wheelchair.

Half Ain’t Been Told, his last album, was released in 2004 and features his son, Garret, on guitar. It was named the top blues album at the East Coast Music Awards in 2005, and his achievements received further recognition that year. Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, held its first annual Dutch Mason Blues Festival, the new Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame enshrined him as an inaugural member and he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Dutch Mason, OC, musician and bandleader, was born on February 19, 1938. He died of diabetes-related illness on December 23, 2006, aged 68