Thursday » September 6 » 2007
Lightfoot gives nod to Semple's cover album
Cam Fuller
The StarPhoenix
Thursday, September 06, 2007
"He is wild but he is mellow.''
The line from Gordon Lightfoot's song Don Quixote could well apply to Jack Semple, who can tear it up with the bad boys of electric blues or soothe the savage breast with acoustic guitar. It's particularly fitting that Semple has undertaken an album of his favourite Lightfoot tunes.
Semple was inspired by the great response he got to his last classical guitar album Qu'Appelle, and by his devotion to the Canadian icon's music.
"I was always a big Gordon Lightfoot fan when I was a teenager. It was a really good way to learn guitar. There's some really great, intricate finger picking," Semple said recently.
Lightfoot fans will find more than the music familiar. Semple's album cover attempts to duplicate the 1966 album Lightfoot! Semple couldn't find the director's chair, but scored a vest at Value Village and reused his old Guitarman cowboy boots.
"It was fun doing that.''
Semple covers 10 songs on the disc, from the familiar Early Morning Rain, If You Could Read My Mind and, yes, Don Quixote, to less obvious choices like Your Love's Return and Song for a Winter's Night.
Reaction to the album, which came out late last year, has varied from good to thrilling. A national CBC radio interview last fall gave it an early boost. As the broadcast moved across our nation's time zones, the CD orders came in from east to west. The album has opened some acoustic doors for Semple, making him bookable for more folkie gigs.
Then came approval from the man himself. Semple talked his way backstage on Lightfoot's last tour stop in Regina and hand-delivered an advance copy. Lightfoot said he was flattered, which Semple found touching.
"He was very gracious. He didn't know who I was. I was just a chump off the street."
A few weeks later, when Semple was busy at home washing dishes, the phone rang. It was Lightfoot, and he'd listened to the album.
"He went through the CD with me. I was just floored that he called me."
Lightfoot especially liked a couple of the tunes that were done on electric guitar. His only negative was directed at Semple's version of Don Quixote.
"It sounds like a bit of a handful," Lightfoot said, diplomatically.
After the chat, Semple put the CD on his stereo and played the song again. It sounded pretty good to him. Then the phone rang again. Lightfoot had listened to it again, too.
"Oh, just leave it. It's good," he said.
"To be talking to this guy who wrote these tunes, it was a real trip. It was a blast," said Semple.
One thing Lightfoot didn't have to critique were the vocals. The album is all-instrumental. Semple wanted to keep it as a companion piece to his instrumental Qu'Appelle album. And he wanted the focus kept on the melodies, not who-sings-what-better. Even so, when he plays the songs, he can hear the audience humming along.
Semple, playing solo at the Broadway Theatre, will be drawing on both the Lightfoot and Qu'Appelle albums.
"Instead of bashing out in the bar doing Hendrix tunes, it'll be more of a concert experience," he says.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007
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You can sample Semple <giggle> at
http://www.jacksemple.com/main.html
Click on music and then the Lightfoot! cover icon. You can listen to a few seconds each of Early Morning Rain, Oh Linda! and The Way I Feel.
Jack Semple does Lightfoot! cover album
