Steve Kimock & Friends ~ The Homestead Morristown, NJ 8/14

So, I broke my Steve Kimock cherry last night in a fairly new venue in Morristown, NJ. Not sure why it took so long but you can't see everything you want sometimes until the stars align. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail since I wasn't familiar with his originals but he was backed by one hell of a band. Here's the band line up.

Steve Kimock: Guitar, Lap Steel

Billy Goodman: Vocals, Slide Guitar (Goodman Brothers, Jorma Kaukonen)

John Morgan Kimock: Drums (Oteil & Friends, Mike Gordon)

Andy Hess: Bass (John Scofield, Black Crowes, Graham Nash)

Jeff Kazee: Keys, B3, vocals (Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny & the Jukes, Roger Waters)

I wasn't expecting Mr. Kimock to hang back on the stage to the extent that he did. Normally I expect a band fronted by a well known guitarist to be front and center. Basically Kimock let his playing do all the talking for him. I was a bit surprised on the number of west coast people who flew out for this current east coast run of shows. I was doing double duty last night because of the keyboardist, Jeff Kazee. Being the bandleader for The Asbury Juke, I wanted to take a few off stage photos for my files so I had them when I needed them. Out of an audience of maybe 150 tops, at least 2 dozen people came up to me after they saw me hanging with Jeff earlier and immediately post show to ask, "Who was that keyboardist??? He was fantastic!" Yes, he is. Being Southside Johnny's musical director means you spend some time with Southside's and E Street Band member Gary Tallent's co-owed record collection which they started back in the early 70's. That collection basically has ever song ever recorded in it. It is so large that the owner's had to buy a large Victorian house in a Jersey shore town just to house it. Anyway, Kazee is constantly called upon to learn almost anything in a moment's mention as because of that, he has chops way beyond what many expect. To give you an example, and I not just fluffing a friend here, the Kimock band wedge an instrumental The Faster We Go, The Rounder We Get into one of their jams.

Out of the multitude of performances of that musical piece that I have heard, last night's version was the best I've ever heard and a large part of that was Jeff's organ playing. psychedelic as fuck barely begins to describe what it was like. At least 4 people who asked about him said the same thing and you could tell they were old school heads. It didn't surprise me because I know his pedigree that is much , much larger than what is listed above. 

Anyway, back to editing photos from last night. I just wanted to let you all know that if you get a chance to catch this run, just do it.