Saskatchewan guitar god Jack Semple asked a good sized crowd at CASA, June 15, if there were any guitar players in the audience. A few people rose their hands. There might have been guitar players in the audience at the beginning, but there probably weren’t any by the end of the show after seeing Semple because they probably hung up their instruments for good.
He began a stunning set on acoustic guitar, playing intricate jazzy runs with elements of the blues as well as classical music plus lots of harmonics, and using just his fingers to create an orchestra of sound.
After he shook out his hand, he told the crowd, jaws dropped on floor, that things were about to get a little bit a louder and apologized for it as he brought his drummer and bassist to the stage.
He picked up a battered Stratocaster with a B.B. King autograph on it and turned things up and pretty much burned the place to the ground with copious doses of funk and sizzling guitar, still just using his fingers to pick searing leads and face melting solos.
He sang over it too in an excellent ’70s style tenor voice. Bassist Dave Chobot sang lead on a couple songs and added vocal harmonies as drummer Mark Dorf kept the beat.
They played a handful of songs from Semple’s latest CD “In The Blue Light” including the hot instrumental “ Spanking, which he said he changed from the original title of “Wanking” at his daughter’s request. The audience had some hard core Semple fans as several of them were singing along.
