Guitarist Jack Semple is performing at the Osoyoos Elks Hall on Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at Mills Office Productivity. (Submitted photo)

By Michele Weisz

Osoyoos Times

Gemini-nominated and Juno-winning blues artist Jack Semple will be performing in the Elks Blues Concert Series on Jan. 16 where the audience can expect to hear what Semple describes as “red-hot geetar pickin’ with soulful bluesy vocals.”

Fans of every genre of music will appreciate the performance, Semple said.

“Blues music is at the heart of jazz, rock, funk, pop, country, rhythm and blues and rap!”

According to Blues Concert Series artistic director Earl Krushelnicki, the talented performer is a “tremendous singer and guitarist.”

Semple’s list of accomplishments is long. In addition to a 1991 Juno award for best roots recording, he has won two Western Canadian music awards and beat over 1,000 Canadian guitarists to win Much Music’s Guitar Wars competition.

As well as touring across Canada with the Jack Semple Band, Semple has scored movies and television shows and released 10 albums.

In their review of his most recent album, Can’t Stop This Love, the Edmonton Journal described it as “filled to the brim with infectious R’n’B grooves.”

The album, which Semple said is focused on songwriting, was inspired by a friend of Semple’s who passed away. The sobering event motivated him to “remove self-imposed limitations” and write a song a day for 60 days. The 10 best were chosen for the album.

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Semple grew up on a farm in Regina, Saskatchewan. As a teenager he studied classical and flamenco guitar and after seeing The Beatles and B.B. King on TV, he became “obsessed with music.” As he got older, his tastes turned towards blues, funk and jazz. He has always incorporated his hometown roots into his music.

After a stint in Toronto with the band The Lincolns, Semple decided to pursue a solo career and moved back to Regina.

Semple said that when touring, small venues are “always special” because there is a sense of intimacy with a smaller audience.

Semple’s stirring rendition of fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Mastercard Memorial Cup, in tribute to the Humboldt Broncos, brought many of the victims’ families to tears.

It is that kind of heartfelt and soulful performance that led Krushelnicki and his fellow Elks to take notice of Semple and want to bring him to Osoyoos.

Krushelnicki said that something about Semple’s performances caught his interest. “He’s a remarkably interesting guitar player.” After meeting Semple he discovered that he was a “good person” as well.

Krushelnicki said that each performer included in the Elks Blues Concert Series is different and the Elks choose whom they feel are the best of the best.

Semple said that he “feels” the blues and after seeing him perform the audience will too.

Tickets for the concert on Jan. 16 are $25 and can be purchased at Mills Office Productivity.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 7:30 p.m.