​Q&A with guitarist Jack Semple

Canadian blues virtuoso Jack Semple is one of Friday’s Fargo Blues Festival headliners. This will be the award-winning, veteran guitarist’s first show ever in North Dakota.

HPR: You definitely have different elements of style represented in your music, but you describe blues as your “center of gravity.” Why keep blues as your “center”?

Jack Semple: I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, which is probably very similar to people who grew up on farms in North Dakota. You know, North Dakota and Saskatchewan are basically the same place. But when I first started hearing blues music when I was a little kid it just struck a chord with me. I can’t explain it – I get it. I got it right away. And I continue to try to interpret it and understand it and play it because I love the art form, and there’s enough in that art form for me to express myself through. So I like blues because that’s how I was born. I was born under a bad sign (laughs).

HPR: You’ve a had a very long and a very dynamic career, working as a musician through TV, competitions, as a member of a band and as a solo artist. Can you talk about the shape of your career, especially considering all you’ve been through?

JS: Well, I’m fairly eclectic even though blues music is my center. I do play other styles of music. I get hired as a session guitar player. You know, with the internet the way it is, I get hired all over the place by different artists to play guitar on their records. So I can play jazz, country, folk. My wife is a classical musician, I play with her sometimes, although I’m not a very good classical musician. But as a professional musician sometimes you have to stretch your talent level in a new direction in order to pay the rent. It helps to be diverse so you can make a living.

But in my heart of hearts, the music that you see me playing, electric guitar, is really what I love to do. I also play solo acoustic guitar. I have a couple of CDs of all solo instrumental acoustic music and it’s kind of folky, worldbeat music. It’s a hybrid of all the kinds of music that I like.

HPR: You have an uncommon guitar-picking style. You use your fingers, not a pick. Why? Is it for aesthetic reasons?

JS: When I was first learning how to play, I started playing with a pick. But then when I really started getting into it as a teenager I studied classical and flamenco guitar. Those styles of music you use your right hand. You don’t use a pick, you use all the fingers of your right hand to play. And I really got into it. When I was about 15 I was really into flamenco music.

And so then when started playing electric guitar, I tried to go back to playing with a pick and I just couldn’t do it. It was like running with lead boots on. Whatever I’d try to do with a pick, it would be so hard. But if I dropped the pick, I could do it immediately with my fingers, so it was just easier.

But then when I started playing electric guitar, the steel strings were really hard on your fingernails, so I started coating my nails with acrylic. You know, you go to a ladies beauty salon and you can get it there … it is weird but it works.

HPR: When you play, there is so much expression, so much emotion – so many notes (Jack laughs) coming out of you. What goes through your head? Do you even think or is just playing and expressing in the moment?

JS: You practice so that there are no barriers between you and what you are feeling. And if you’re warmed up and practiced up and everything, when you start to play often the music takes over, and when it’s at its best the music takes over and you are just the vehicle by which the music is traveling. And when that happens it’s thrilling because you are witnessing it. You’re not so much making it up, you’re witnessing it, which is great because you are right at the center of that creative source and it’s very thrilling.

It’s not always like that. Sometimes it’s hard work and you have to focus and really think ahead. But the two musicians I’m going to be playing with, Steve Hoy on drums and Dave Chobot on bass, we’ve been playing together for a long time and they support me really well and when we play together. The music often plays itself, which is really, really wonderful.

And the great thing about playing an improvised style of music, which is what blues is, is that however you are feeling right at that moment, you can express it to the world. And when you’ve got a big audience and you’ve got a loud guitar in your hand (laughs), I’m not saying it’s an ego trip, but you are bringing something intangible to life and that’s really amazing. It’s a great feeling. I guess that’s what the art of music is all about.

HPR: If it’s not there, do you you feel like you’re not connecting with the musicians or maybe you’re too much inside your head?

JS: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of diversions and a lot of distractions from that pure source thing. But usually – I mean, I’ve been doing this long enough – I kind of know how to avoid the mental pitfalls of it all.

One way to do it is to focus on the audience and to look at the audience as they are watching you. I’m watching them almost as much as they are watching me because it’s very entertaining sometimes. And then when you do that you can get out of your head, out of my own analytical head, and get into the exchange that’s happening between the stage and the audience.

HPR: It’s funny because I think a lot of musicians think the opposite, especially newer musicians. They don’t want to lock eyes with someone who’s wearing a frowny face.

JS: (Semple laughs) You never know what you are going to see looking out into the audience, but I don’t know, it’s a useful strategy for me.

HPR: You perform a mix of originals and covers. What can we expect from your performance on Friday?

JS: We’re going to play lots of originals, but we’re also going to pay tribute probably to B.B. King because he just passed away a little while ago ... and we also do this one song in particular that I think I’ve played at every gig for the last 30 years. It’s called “Rainy Night in Georgia” and it was written by Tony Joe White, and it’s just an incredible song, and it really fits my band and we always play that one. But lots of the others are originals on the recordings that I’ve made.

HPR: Anything you’d like to add?

JS: I really look forward to playing in the United States because you guys invented blues music. Really, it’s an American artform. Even though I live in North America, I still think of blues music and rock and roll and jazz, most of the popular music of the 20th century – the American culture invented it. So it’s really cool to come down and play there because it’s an indigenous music.