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April 2010 Steve Kimock flexes his versatility in 2010 with a number of exclusive solo, acoustic and full band performances spanning both coasts.
Beginning on 4/20, Kimock joins long-time collaborator Bobby Vega for a very auspicious performance at their old stomping grounds in Fairfax, CA. This one-night event will serve as a launching pad for the Steve Kimock Crazy Engine tour kicking off the next day at the Hopmonk in Sebastopol, CA. Setting the tone for the tour, the Hopmonk performance will also include Bobby Vega as a special guest, for what looks like a night of intense dueling bass licks and the crystal clear guitar phrasing that only Steve Kimock can deliver.
Crazy Engine continues down the track on April 22nd for an Earth Day celebration at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz, CA. This three-set show boasts a rare Kimock solo opener – the first of its kind in California followed by Steve Kimock Crazy Engine featuring the legendary Melvin Seals on Hammond B3 and keys (JGB), Kimock’s twenty-year-old son John Morgan Kimock on drums and Trevor Exter, on bass and vocals. The Crazy Engine run then heads south to Hermosa Beach and San Diego, with a stop in between in Phoenix, AZ for a late night performance at the Compound Grill as part of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival – marking Kimock’s first show in the southwest for over three years.
Also scheduled for the spring, Kimock will perform a two-show solo performance in NYC at The Stone on May 7th. Known for his intrinsic ability to speak through the guitar, this one-night run is sure to bring out a side of Kimock’s music (and instruments) rarely seen in the public, and often reserved for late nights in the heart of his home studio. The new non-profit performance space is dedicated to the experimental and the avante garde, a seemingly perfect environment for the unconventional guitarist and his solo muse.
Then, beginning on May 20th, Kimock will embark on a four-day journey with the Everyone Orchestra. The traveling event will kick off at Hodi’s Half Note in Fort Collins on May 20th and will continue to Quixote’s True Blue (formerly Owsleys) on Saturday May 21 and Sunday May 22nd. This rendition of the project features a stellar line up of nationally renowned talent including Kyle Hollingsworth (SCI), Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Dave Watts (The Motet), Jamie Janover (Zilla), Garrett Sayers (The Motet), Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project), Matt Butler and of course, YOU. An additional Sunday, May 23rd performance (minus Hollingsworth) is billed as a happy hour show featuring an acoustic set and with other special
guests to be announced.
With little pause, Kimock will then join forces with the ultra-experimental Marco Benevento for an intimate powerhouse show at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Wilkes-Barre, PA – near Kimock’s home turf, on June 17th. Both known for their emotive and often instrumental arrangements, this paring is sure not to disappoint.
With a summer packed with Crazy Engine festival dates, a few appearances with Holy Kimoto! (Furthurmore Fest and Ned Fest) and Youssoupha Sidibe tucked in between, this is wrapping up to be an eventful season for Steve Kimock.
Steve Kimock will top off the summer with an appearance at the National Guitar Workshop in CT on August 3rd as a guest artist. He will be offering hands-on instruction and music education during one of the most prominent guitar workshops in the country. For those tuned into his new on-line blog aptly named “Kimocks Korner” on his website, now is the chance to interact with Kimock in person.
Steve Kimock Returns to the Southwest
April 2010
Legendary guitar player Steve Kimock returns to the Southwest, for the first time in three years, with his latest project Steve Kimock Crazy Engine. The five-day spring tour, which also features Hammond B3 player Melvin Seals (JGB), will include visits to Santa Cruz, Sebastopol, Hermosa Beach, San Diego and Phoenix.
Steve Kimock is distinguished for his incomparable approach to the art of guitar; his ability to gently tug a flurry of notes with tonal precision is breathtaking. Kimock has an uncanny ability to relay genuine passion and emotion through his instruments, much like a literary poet speaks through words. His instinctive understanding of music and high-level dexterity has driven over thirty years of worldwide performances —developing a devoted following of music fans and guitar aficionados alike.
His latest project, Steve Kimock Crazy Engine captures the spirit of free form music leaving one foot dangling in structure while creating a very intricate form of theme and variation seeded in rock, pop, jazz, R&B and world music. The band featuring the renowned Melvin Seals on keys and B-3, also welcomes Kimock’s 20 year-old-son John Morgan Kimock on drums, as well as Trevor Exter on bass and vocals.
Kimock’s variegated brand of guitar, alternately subdued and vibrant, defies easy categorization. At times prog rock/jazz-inflected and at others gypsy-straightaway, his crystal clear tone has been captivating audiences for more than thirty years.
Kimock co-founded the Jazz/Rock quintessential band Zero in the 80’s, KVHW in the 90’s, Steve Kimock Band in 2000, and is currently performing in his new act, Crazy Engine. He is widely embraced by fans as one who carries the free-form torch of improvisation, through an extensive catalog of original material in his own bands, as well as through live performances with so many esteemed musicians. Kimock has performed alongside the likes of Bruce Hornsby (and can be heard on two of Hornsby’s releases), John Cipollina Jerry Garcia and all members of the Grateful Dead, as well as Peter Frampton, Bonnie Raitt, The Allman Brothers, Buddy Miles, Buddy Cage, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Bobby Vega, Martin Fierro, Joe Satriani, Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Elvin Bishop, George Porter Jr., Steve Winwood, Derek Trucks, Ivan Neville, Grace Slick, Papa John Creach, Norton Buffalo, Amos Garrett, Warren Haynes, Hadi Al Sadoon, Stephen Perkins, Nicky Hopkins, Freddie Roulette, and many more.
His passion and devotion to performing live improvisation is matchless, and his unparalleled ability to embrace and capture a theater musically is the stuff of legends.
“Unconventional. Experimental. It’s sort of the Steve Kimock way.” – CNN, 2009
Fall 2009
Steve Kimock is an innovator. Not just for his ability to successfully navigate live performances spanning the Summer of Love through the advent of MTV and well into the new electronic-pop revolution. And not just for his gift for leading the live music recording and download revolution with a meticulous dedication to archive and share his live shows for more then twenty years (Macworld, 2005). He is not just an innovator because of his craftsmanship restoring vintage analog equipment and for a completely custom and organic sound (he designed a highly collected edition of Two Rock brand “Kimock Amplifiers” and most recently a custom, ergonomic Scott Walker guitar, in stereo).
Steve Kimock is also an innovator for his ability to create matchless arrangements of musicians, who for over thirty years have collectively created inimitable improvisational performances based on the elements of classic rock, jazz, prog and rhythm & blues, with the kind of soul only someone with his experience and depth can construct.
His latest project, aptly named Crazy Engine, is also approached with the same “a bit of the old and a bit of the new” logic. The line-up includes the legendary Hammond B3 player Melvin Seals, known for his twenty years with the Jerry Garcia Band, as well as his son, John Morgan Kimock on drums. Not without merit, the twenty-year-old drummer has organized a number of self-released albums earning him a record deal with Rope-A-Dope Records by the age of 18. Rounding out the quartet is accomplished singer-songwriter and cello player, Trevor Exter, who was plucked out of the NYC indie music scene to fill the roll of bass and vocals. This arrangement of seasoned players and talented youthful musicians blends with Kimock’s innovative mind for music – and foretells a merge of his vintage appeal with a modern twist, to befit music lovers of all types.
One of the last living musicians still touring from the era of Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead and The Band, Steve Kimock has led a storied career. He has performed with a cast of characters that reads like the musicians almanac including John Cipollina, Peter Frampton, Little Feat, Jerry Garcia & all members of the Grateful Dead, Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt, The Allman Brothers, Buddy Miles, Buddy Cage, Trey Anastasio & all members of Phish, Jorma Kaukonen, Vassar Clements, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Joe Satriani, Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Elvin Bishop, Steve Winwood, Derek Trucks, George Porter Jr., Ivan Neville, Grace Slick, Papa John Creach, Norton Buffalo, Amos Garrett, Terry Haggerty, Hadi Al Sadoon, Stephen Perkins, Nicky Hopkins and Freddie Roulette just to name a few.
His ability to articulate tone, melody and emotion into music combined with technical brilliance has earned Kimock the title “Guitar Monk” by Relix Magazine for his commitment to guitar, and his ability to make it speak with its own original voice. Perhaps this is why Jerry Garcia himself named Steve Kimock his “favorite unknown guitarist” in Rollingstone Magazine, months before he passed.
Steve Kimock Crazy Engine is hitting the road this fall for a tour with dates spanning the East Coast, the Midwest and even the Pacific Northwest before ending down south for a two-night run in Fayetteville, AR – a place where Kimock legend tells of unusual power jams, sit in musicians and surprises, an unlikely tour finale which should live up to it’s long standing tradition.
As always, this series of intimate performances will be recorded and available for purchase, and word is a live “fan release” may be in the works. While Kimock treats the spirit of live recording as seriously as another “member in the band”, the live show is not to be missed. Kimock’s unparalleled ability to embrace and capture a theater musically is the stuff of legends.
LONG BIO
“I walked out of the house as a teenager and said, ‘I’m just gonna play my guitar’” recalls Steve Kimock. “Literally, I didn’t care if I had a place to live or if I was in the street or if I had anything to eat, I just played.”
Almost forty-years later, turns out not much has changed. Sure, now a loving husband and proud father, responsibility has reared its beautiful head, but Kimock still just wants to play his guitar (electric, acoustic, lap and pedal steel), and he does so with the same youthful passion, chasing the muse wherever she may lead him. In fact, when Kimock reflects on his life path, he admits, “I think the primary thing might be the complete lack of goal orientation.”
It was never about being a rock star or getting rich, true artists don’t operate that way. For a man like Kimock, success is not based on tangible objects, awards or record sales; success is about how you live, the people you touch and remaining true to yourself. Applying these practices in the shallow waters of the music world is no easy task, but it’s the artists who achieve this that pull off the rare trick of developing a unique voice in the crowded conversation. For Kimock, it’s all about how he approaches the craft: “A lot of my life was spent with no other focus than having whatever I felt was a properly authentic relationship with the guitar.”
Born in 1955, Kimock’s fortuitous relationship with music began as a child. Growing up in Bethlehem, PA, when he was around 10 or 12 he remembers hanging out frequently at his Aunt Dottie’s house. She was a folk singer with lots of stringed things and percussive objects lying around and Steve just loved going to play at Dottie’s. Around this time Steve’s cousin, Kenny Siftar, returned from military service over seas and was staying at Kimock’s grandmother’s house. Originally from Tulsa, OK, Kenny taught Steve his first rock & roll licks on a beautiful gold top Les Paul. It wasn’t long until Steve got his own guitar. A cheap old ten dollar acoustic would change his life forever.
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