When Regina guitarist Jack Semple takes to the stage at the Cugnet Centre on Monday, May 1, with his four-piece band, he will be playing a Gibson ES335, which guitar and blues aficionados will know as “Lucille” in the hands of the late great B.B. King.
Semple will be playing a tribute show to the “King of the Blues”, a guitarist who had a profound impact on him since he first heard him at the age of 10.
This will be the final presentation of the season for the Weyburn Concert Series, which is capping off a successful year and already has strong ticket sales for next season. The Series just hosted a special one-person play, “Jake’s Gift”, on Saturday evening, a show that was opened by the Comp’s STARS Show Choir with a half-hour program of music popular from the World War Two era.
Semple will be playing most of B.B. King’s most well-known songs, from his biggest hit, “The Thrill is Gone”, to “Caledonia”, “Why I Sing the Blues” and “Let the Good Times Roll”.
He saw King perform a number of times, and in 1995 he met him backstage after he performed at the Conexus Arts Centre, and got the famed guitarist to sign his Fender Stratocaster. Semple had sanded down a spot for King to sign, and then he refinished the guitar so it’s permanently etched into the guitar body.
Meeting King that night “was the highlight moment of my life”, he said, noting that King was generous with his time in meeting fans, with a long line of over 40 people who wanted to shake his hand or get his autograph.
The guitar of choice for this concert, however, will be the same make and model that King used, which he affectionately named “Lucille”.
While Semple knows King’s songs very well, to prepare for this tribute, he watched videos of King playing live to see his style of playing and way of singing, not so much so he could imitate King, but he wants to evoke the spirit of King in his playing.
The style of blues that King excelled at was the blues shuffle, said Semple. “It’s really joyous music, so we really try to evoke that in our performance.”
Semple will have four players on stage with him, on drums, bass, keyboards and saxophone — not quite the 14-piece band that B.B. King toured with for many years, but the music will be the blues that King made famous over his long career.
