Jack Semple, a guitar virtuoso in the style of Bruce Cockburn and Don Ross, can’t wait to share his new album – In The Blue Light – with the Bow Valley.
“I think it’s the best songwriting – it’s hard for the artist to be objective – but I focus more on songwriting than on ‘guitar wanking’ as I call it,” he said, in an interview with the Outlook.
“Although there is a song on the album called ‘Spanking,’ it’s only called that because my daughter said I couldn’t call it wanking – wanking is a slang term in music for overplaying, too many notes – but it’s fun to play a lot of notes.”
The Saskatchewan native was most recently in Canmore this summer to play the Canmore Folk Music Festival, a highlight of which was participating in a workshop with Bruce Cockburn.
“It was wonderful, it couldn’t be a more picturesque location, and the support is incredible,” said Semple, “The level of music is world-class, it’s right up there with any other folk festival in Canada.”
Semple will hit the Communitea Cafe stage in Canmore, Saturday evening (Nov. 10).
“I have a nephew who lives in Canmore, and he was always suggesting the Communitea would be an excellent venue to play,” he said. “They’ve got a great lineup, it’s quite impressive.”
In The Blue Light is Semple’s 11th album and marks a return to blues rock.
“The new CD is 13 new songs, all blues-based, but with a singer-songwriter approach to blues,” he explained. “I call it ‘new blues,’ it doesn’t have the same three chords over and over again, it’s more like Keb Mo.
“The blues is where my heart lives, it’s where my talent lies. Although I’m also a guitar player, a lot of what I’ll be playing is instrumental guitar music, like Don Ross and solo acoustic, folky, bluesy guitar playing.”
For the Communitea show, Semple will play mostly solo acoustic music.
“The new CD’s inspired by Howling Wolf, Sunny Boy Williamson and BB King, using that as the roots and the source and embellishing and writing modern blues,” he said. “That’s what basic rock ’n’ roll was in the late ‘50s, it was just a variation or mutation of blues music.
“And my music continues to be that, it takes blues as the inspiration and takes it to another place. It’s a bit more progressive music that’s on this CD.”
Raised in Saskatchewan, Semple moved to Toronto in the 1990s for his music career, but soon returned home.
“In the ’90s I won a national guitar contest called Guitar Wars,” he said. “Out of 1,500 people I came in first, so I’m known as a guitar player first before anything else.
“But Saskatchewan’s better than Toronto. Toronto’s better for business, but as far as house prices and the cost of living there it is ridiculous. I’ve been here for long enough I own a house already.”
That said, Semple is looking forward to an upcoming tour into Alberta and British Columbia.
“Canmore’s a beautiful place though, I’ve never seen a more beautiful place on Earth,” he said. “What people will see when they come to this gig is some hot guitar and hear some soulful singing and I think they’re going to have a good time.
“My previous three CDs were solo guitar, so really in the last five years most of my gigs have been solo, and I’ve returned to the band format with this CD. Hopefully the next time I come back to the Communitea I’ll bring my band. And I hope to come back soon.”
For more information on Semple, visit his website at www.jacksemple.com
