The progressive bluesman
Muirsical Conversation with Stevie Nimmo
Muirsical Conversation with Stevie Nimmo
Scottish blues based singer-songwriter-guitarist Stevie Nimmo, in the company of younger brother Alan, made quite the mark as The Nimmo Brothers with a solid run of studio albums, a stand-out live release and associated critical acclaim.
Why the quality of their material and the tangible energy of their live performances were never given the attention they deserved in the UK however (they made a far bigger impact across various territories in Europe) is a question that remains to this day and one that FabricationsHQ discussed with Alan Nimmo in 2015.
The Nimmo Brothers still perform and are still in demand in Europe, but the talented and incredibly close siblings Stevie and Alan are now in much bigger demand in their roles as front men of The Stevie Nimmo Trio and King King, respectively.
While King King go from strength to strength Stevie Nimmo has been slowly but surely building up his solo reputation on the back of debut album The Wynds of Life (2010), the formation and noted live performances of the Stevie Nimmo Trio and the release of his outstanding and critically acclaimed second album Sky Won’t Fall (2016).
Successful tours with Manhaton Records label mates Ben Poole (double headliner) and Robin Trower (as Special Guest) have further enhanced the Stevie Nimmo Trio’s reputation, to the extent that they have become one of the must-see bands on the blues rock circuit.
Stevie Nimmo spoke to FabricationsHQ to discuss the juxtaposition of a British act seeing healthier returns in Europe than the UK, the fun he is having playing in a band that feature not just great musicians but good friends, the making of Sky Won’t Fall and The Wynds of Life and how he is looking forward to getting back out on the road in March for his headlining tour of the UK.
Why the quality of their material and the tangible energy of their live performances were never given the attention they deserved in the UK however (they made a far bigger impact across various territories in Europe) is a question that remains to this day and one that FabricationsHQ discussed with Alan Nimmo in 2015.
The Nimmo Brothers still perform and are still in demand in Europe, but the talented and incredibly close siblings Stevie and Alan are now in much bigger demand in their roles as front men of The Stevie Nimmo Trio and King King, respectively.
While King King go from strength to strength Stevie Nimmo has been slowly but surely building up his solo reputation on the back of debut album The Wynds of Life (2010), the formation and noted live performances of the Stevie Nimmo Trio and the release of his outstanding and critically acclaimed second album Sky Won’t Fall (2016).
Successful tours with Manhaton Records label mates Ben Poole (double headliner) and Robin Trower (as Special Guest) have further enhanced the Stevie Nimmo Trio’s reputation, to the extent that they have become one of the must-see bands on the blues rock circuit.
Stevie Nimmo spoke to FabricationsHQ to discuss the juxtaposition of a British act seeing healthier returns in Europe than the UK, the fun he is having playing in a band that feature not just great musicians but good friends, the making of Sky Won’t Fall and The Wynds of Life and how he is looking forward to getting back out on the road in March for his headlining tour of the UK.
Ross Muir: The Stevie Nimmo Trio have not long completed a run of well received dates in France, where you now reside.
Over the last ten or fifteen years places like France, Germany, the Netherlands, in fact European audiences in general, have embraced the British blues and blues rock musicians that tour Europe…
Stevie Nimmo: Europe’s always been strong. The Nimmo Brothers used to come over, not so much to France, but to Holland and Belgium; I think it was 1999 when we went over for the first time and to this day, and every day, there’s someone asking about getting The Nimmo Brothers over to Holland!
It’s just one of those things where they just really liked the kind of act we were and what we brought; I really think that’s why they like what I’m doing now with the trio and what Alan is doing with King King.
So, yeah, they really do like the rock and blues!
I do remember though, when we first went out, we watched this amazing blues band, with a great harmonica player. They played a great set but the Dutch audience were just chatting among themselves.
We said "look guys, can you not see just how good this band are?" and we got the reply "yeah, but there’s loads of bands like that here – what we don’t have is bands like you!" We just went "right, OK then" [laughs]
That told us we would always do well in Europe, and that’s a good thing.
RM: It is indeed. If you speak to just about any of the bands and artists on the circuit they will tell you they can get large blues club crowds and a fair few sell-outs in places like Finland, or the Netherlands, or France, or wherever, but struggle to see that same return closer to home.
There are a number of reasons for that, which is a whole other discussion, but we have tremendous quality and talent in British blues and blues rock that isn’t getting the success, recognition or ticket sales in the UK it deserves. There’s the blues rock rub…
SN: Exactly. It’s a tough one. I’ve been saying much the same thing for many a year.
My trio is a relatively new project; we’ve been playing now for about two and a half years but for the first couple of years we were just jumping in and out of gigs or playing here and there – but since the new album came out we’ve been hitting it hard with a lot more conviction.
But, even in those early years, we were getting gigs over in Holland and pulling in more bodies than we would get in the UK!
I do think in Europe though they are more open to listening, or giving you a chance, or they may have liked what you were doing before – The Nimmo Brothers in my case.
They’ll say "Well, we liked what you did before so we’re going to give this new band a chance" regardless of what it is or even what genre it is.
And it’s hard to break that mentality in Britain but Alan and I are very fortunate in that we have an audience who will come out and see whatever it is we’re doing – they like what we do, so they will come out and support what we do.
Now that’s great, and it’s something we will never take for granted, but it would also be great if a lot more people gave you that benefit of the doubt! [laughs]
RM: Part of the problem is the UK mainstream music media don’t give it much attention – in fact more times than not they don’t cover it at all, happier to laud the usual suspects, the bigger classic rock names or whatever Greatest Hits tour is in town.
On a more positive note the solid UK fan-base you do have, plus others who have picked up on you through the tour with Robin Trower or on the back of Sky Won’t Fall, can see you in March on what is a pretty healthy sized headlining UK tour…
SN: Now that we’ve established this band, and have the album out, I like to get out and do as many dates as I can put in and get in a zone – well, without killing everybody! [laughs] – we’ll do a number of dates, come off the road for a little break, then go back out again.
I really like to work like that now because I spent too many years gigging solidly through the week and being the Weekend Warrior, spending every weekend of every year just playing.
I just couldn’t do that anymore and wouldn’t want to, to be honest with you; it’s physically and mentally draining and when you’re doing that sort of stuff you miss everything that’s going on in your life – in fact you don’t have a life!
I don’t envy anyone who does that; I really don’t. I used to be made of sterner stuff but these days I appreciate more things in life, so I break up the tour accordingly.
But this tour has really shaped up well. I think we have twenty one dates now across a full month, starting on the first of March in Bilston and ending on the first of April in Devizes.
We’re trying to cover as much of the UK as we can get to this time but of course there’s always people who are going to say "why didn’t you come to my town!" or "why didn’t you come to this place!"
Sometimes it’s hard for them to understand that it really isn’t as easy as that! [laughs]
RM: No, tour routing is a tricky bugger; a lot of people don’t know just what it entails as regards logistics, booking way in advance, venue availability… sometimes you can only play where the routing takes you.
SN: That’s it exactly. You probably saw the wee thing Thunder did when they announced their last tour?
They put out a statement that said something like "Before anyone says it – if your town isn’t there, believe us we tried!"
So when someone inevitably says "but why didn’t you play here?" they can say "please see above!” [laughs]
It is frustrating though; we’d love to play everywhere but it just isn’t going to happen, especially in a smaller country like Scotland.
A lot of people still don’t understand why I won’t play Glasgow one night, Edinburgh the next, then say Kinross, head up to Perth and Inverness, across to somewhere in Aberdeen, back down to Dundee… well, because there’s about an hour’s travelling between each one; we won’t pull enough people in!
RM: Which is another reason why we sometimes see lower turn-outs in the UK; if bands or their agents have booked too many dates in a specific region or catchment area…
SN: Exactly; they’re too close! On the next tour you try and change the towns around, but you have to get that balance.
RM: On the plus side you are safe in the knowledge that, as you said earlier, you are going to get an audience at whatever town is on the tour because people like what you do.
It also doesn’t hurt that you don’t just have the songs and the chops, you have a great band – Mat Beable and Craig Bacon aren’t just the rhythm section of the Stevie Nimmo Trio, they are the perfect foil, and fit, for what you do and, more importantly, for what you want to be able to deliver.
SN: When I started to think about putting together a trio there were a couple of things on my mind.
First, I didn’t want the band to be just like any other – as much as I love Stevie Ray Vaughan I didn’t want it to be power blues at you all night long. I wanted it to be spacious; I wanted gaps where gaps needed to be but I also wanted plenty of melody and long notes that could just hang on.
Secondly, I needed the players behind me that would know when, and when not, to fill those gaps.
I had already worked with Mat, for years, with the Nimmo Brothers, so I knew Mat very well; he's my first choice for bass players in the UK.
We’re also good mates as much as anything else, which is a really important thing for me.
Craig I had only known for about six months before I started the trio.
He had filled in for The Nimmo Brothers at a festival gig in Europe and that was because Alan had known him before that when he filled in for a King King gig – you know that sort of incestuous thing that happens on the circuit [laughs]
Anyway, I just remember showing up for this festival and the first thing I’m thinking about is "Right, do I need to keep an eye on the drummer? Does he know all his cues?" All that sort of stuff.
After half an hour I didn’t even have to look at the guy; Craig he had learned the material, there was a joy in his playing and he wasn’t making it look like it was the first time he had ever played with us.
I thought "I really like this dude!"
Craig, like Mat, has become one of my best mates – that friendship you see on stage, where we are having fun and having a good laugh – that is absolutely, one hundred percent genuine and we wouldn’t be doing it if we weren’t having fun with it. That’s very important to me.
RM: I think it’s just as important for the audience. If you weren’t close – in terms of musical tightness and that camaraderie – if you were just dialling it in, fans and audiences will pick up on that.
It’s clear you guys are enjoying yourselves and being that enthused means you will play and perform better.
That enthusiasm, that positive energy, is reciprocated by the audience. I’ve always believed that to be true.
SN: Absolutely. As you especially will know, because you’ve seen a lot more bands than I have, there is nothing worse than watching a band, and knowing, they are just there to play the music.
And they probably don’t really care for each other! That, for me, would be an awful situation to be in.
Fortunately in my career I’ve never really been in a situation like that – there might be a few players along the way where you think "right, it’s time for them to go" but that’s always going to happen at some point; if they are not happy to be there then they shouldn’t be there.
It’s never been a case of just firing people; it’s always been a case of "you’re really not happy here; you should move on and do what you want somewhere else with no hard feelings."
But there is nothing worse than being locked in to something like that and you’re right; it definitely shows on stage and it definitely goes back out to the audience. Audiences can pick up on the good and the bad.
Over the last ten or fifteen years places like France, Germany, the Netherlands, in fact European audiences in general, have embraced the British blues and blues rock musicians that tour Europe…
Stevie Nimmo: Europe’s always been strong. The Nimmo Brothers used to come over, not so much to France, but to Holland and Belgium; I think it was 1999 when we went over for the first time and to this day, and every day, there’s someone asking about getting The Nimmo Brothers over to Holland!
It’s just one of those things where they just really liked the kind of act we were and what we brought; I really think that’s why they like what I’m doing now with the trio and what Alan is doing with King King.
So, yeah, they really do like the rock and blues!
I do remember though, when we first went out, we watched this amazing blues band, with a great harmonica player. They played a great set but the Dutch audience were just chatting among themselves.
We said "look guys, can you not see just how good this band are?" and we got the reply "yeah, but there’s loads of bands like that here – what we don’t have is bands like you!" We just went "right, OK then" [laughs]
That told us we would always do well in Europe, and that’s a good thing.
RM: It is indeed. If you speak to just about any of the bands and artists on the circuit they will tell you they can get large blues club crowds and a fair few sell-outs in places like Finland, or the Netherlands, or France, or wherever, but struggle to see that same return closer to home.
There are a number of reasons for that, which is a whole other discussion, but we have tremendous quality and talent in British blues and blues rock that isn’t getting the success, recognition or ticket sales in the UK it deserves. There’s the blues rock rub…
SN: Exactly. It’s a tough one. I’ve been saying much the same thing for many a year.
My trio is a relatively new project; we’ve been playing now for about two and a half years but for the first couple of years we were just jumping in and out of gigs or playing here and there – but since the new album came out we’ve been hitting it hard with a lot more conviction.
But, even in those early years, we were getting gigs over in Holland and pulling in more bodies than we would get in the UK!
I do think in Europe though they are more open to listening, or giving you a chance, or they may have liked what you were doing before – The Nimmo Brothers in my case.
They’ll say "Well, we liked what you did before so we’re going to give this new band a chance" regardless of what it is or even what genre it is.
And it’s hard to break that mentality in Britain but Alan and I are very fortunate in that we have an audience who will come out and see whatever it is we’re doing – they like what we do, so they will come out and support what we do.
Now that’s great, and it’s something we will never take for granted, but it would also be great if a lot more people gave you that benefit of the doubt! [laughs]
RM: Part of the problem is the UK mainstream music media don’t give it much attention – in fact more times than not they don’t cover it at all, happier to laud the usual suspects, the bigger classic rock names or whatever Greatest Hits tour is in town.
On a more positive note the solid UK fan-base you do have, plus others who have picked up on you through the tour with Robin Trower or on the back of Sky Won’t Fall, can see you in March on what is a pretty healthy sized headlining UK tour…
SN: Now that we’ve established this band, and have the album out, I like to get out and do as many dates as I can put in and get in a zone – well, without killing everybody! [laughs] – we’ll do a number of dates, come off the road for a little break, then go back out again.
I really like to work like that now because I spent too many years gigging solidly through the week and being the Weekend Warrior, spending every weekend of every year just playing.
I just couldn’t do that anymore and wouldn’t want to, to be honest with you; it’s physically and mentally draining and when you’re doing that sort of stuff you miss everything that’s going on in your life – in fact you don’t have a life!
I don’t envy anyone who does that; I really don’t. I used to be made of sterner stuff but these days I appreciate more things in life, so I break up the tour accordingly.
But this tour has really shaped up well. I think we have twenty one dates now across a full month, starting on the first of March in Bilston and ending on the first of April in Devizes.
We’re trying to cover as much of the UK as we can get to this time but of course there’s always people who are going to say "why didn’t you come to my town!" or "why didn’t you come to this place!"
Sometimes it’s hard for them to understand that it really isn’t as easy as that! [laughs]
RM: No, tour routing is a tricky bugger; a lot of people don’t know just what it entails as regards logistics, booking way in advance, venue availability… sometimes you can only play where the routing takes you.
SN: That’s it exactly. You probably saw the wee thing Thunder did when they announced their last tour?
They put out a statement that said something like "Before anyone says it – if your town isn’t there, believe us we tried!"
So when someone inevitably says "but why didn’t you play here?" they can say "please see above!” [laughs]
It is frustrating though; we’d love to play everywhere but it just isn’t going to happen, especially in a smaller country like Scotland.
A lot of people still don’t understand why I won’t play Glasgow one night, Edinburgh the next, then say Kinross, head up to Perth and Inverness, across to somewhere in Aberdeen, back down to Dundee… well, because there’s about an hour’s travelling between each one; we won’t pull enough people in!
RM: Which is another reason why we sometimes see lower turn-outs in the UK; if bands or their agents have booked too many dates in a specific region or catchment area…
SN: Exactly; they’re too close! On the next tour you try and change the towns around, but you have to get that balance.
RM: On the plus side you are safe in the knowledge that, as you said earlier, you are going to get an audience at whatever town is on the tour because people like what you do.
It also doesn’t hurt that you don’t just have the songs and the chops, you have a great band – Mat Beable and Craig Bacon aren’t just the rhythm section of the Stevie Nimmo Trio, they are the perfect foil, and fit, for what you do and, more importantly, for what you want to be able to deliver.
SN: When I started to think about putting together a trio there were a couple of things on my mind.
First, I didn’t want the band to be just like any other – as much as I love Stevie Ray Vaughan I didn’t want it to be power blues at you all night long. I wanted it to be spacious; I wanted gaps where gaps needed to be but I also wanted plenty of melody and long notes that could just hang on.
Secondly, I needed the players behind me that would know when, and when not, to fill those gaps.
I had already worked with Mat, for years, with the Nimmo Brothers, so I knew Mat very well; he's my first choice for bass players in the UK.
We’re also good mates as much as anything else, which is a really important thing for me.
Craig I had only known for about six months before I started the trio.
He had filled in for The Nimmo Brothers at a festival gig in Europe and that was because Alan had known him before that when he filled in for a King King gig – you know that sort of incestuous thing that happens on the circuit [laughs]
Anyway, I just remember showing up for this festival and the first thing I’m thinking about is "Right, do I need to keep an eye on the drummer? Does he know all his cues?" All that sort of stuff.
After half an hour I didn’t even have to look at the guy; Craig he had learned the material, there was a joy in his playing and he wasn’t making it look like it was the first time he had ever played with us.
I thought "I really like this dude!"
Craig, like Mat, has become one of my best mates – that friendship you see on stage, where we are having fun and having a good laugh – that is absolutely, one hundred percent genuine and we wouldn’t be doing it if we weren’t having fun with it. That’s very important to me.
RM: I think it’s just as important for the audience. If you weren’t close – in terms of musical tightness and that camaraderie – if you were just dialling it in, fans and audiences will pick up on that.
It’s clear you guys are enjoying yourselves and being that enthused means you will play and perform better.
That enthusiasm, that positive energy, is reciprocated by the audience. I’ve always believed that to be true.
SN: Absolutely. As you especially will know, because you’ve seen a lot more bands than I have, there is nothing worse than watching a band, and knowing, they are just there to play the music.
And they probably don’t really care for each other! That, for me, would be an awful situation to be in.
Fortunately in my career I’ve never really been in a situation like that – there might be a few players along the way where you think "right, it’s time for them to go" but that’s always going to happen at some point; if they are not happy to be there then they shouldn’t be there.
It’s never been a case of just firing people; it’s always been a case of "you’re really not happy here; you should move on and do what you want somewhere else with no hard feelings."
But there is nothing worse than being locked in to something like that and you’re right; it definitely shows on stage and it definitely goes back out to the audience. Audiences can pick up on the good and the bad.
The Stevie Nimmo Trio: Mat Beable, Stevie Nimmo, Craig Bacon. Musically tight and Buddy tight.
"That friendship you see on stage, where we are having fun, is absolutely, one hundred percent genuine"
RM: I'd like to talk a little about the making of Sky Won’t Fall, which features the talents of Mat and Craig.
That’s a fantastic album, which deservedly got great reviews across the board – I’m guessing you’re very happy with how it turned out song wise and how it sounded, having worked on the production with Wayne Proctor and his House of Tone team?
SN: Thank you and I am, yeah. It was a good album to make because it all came together really well.
We had been touring half the songs for about eighteen months so they were already bedded in.
We knew exactly how we wanted those songs to sound and the guys knew the spaces that needed filled, the spaces that didn’t need filled, when to leave it and when to hit it hard – that had all become natural to us.
The other half of the album was basically me sending Mat and Craig demos of the songs with my vocal, guitar, a bass line and a drum machine – and I don’t do bass or drum machine very well! [laughs]
I sent the demos over, said "there’s the parts, now you guys do what you do because I am not a bass player or a drummer – I need you guys to do your thing!"
And they did! They put in exactly what I wanted to hear without me having to say "no, I want to hear you do it like this." It was a very natural way to work.
And with Wayne Proctor, we’re back to that incestuous thing! [laughter]
I’ve known Wayne for many, many years – he’s played for me and my brother and he’d always been champing at me about "if you do another album you have to come to me!" or "you should come out to the studio and let me show you what we have here!" I'd reply "Aye, right. No chance!" [laughs]
But of course I was just winding him up – I love Wayne to bits but he’d be the first to admit that I’ve just spent my whole life winding him up about stuff [laughter].
So when this chance came up to do an album with Wayne I took it and it just worked really well.
RM: And it was a true partnership?
SN: Yes, we had a very good conversation about that before we started recording.
I came in to see Wayne and said "I know you produce a lot of bands but on this one I want the two of us to produce it; you’re not going to tell me what to do here and I’m not going to tell you what to do there; I’ll bring my songs in, I’ll tell you what I want to hear and then you and Andy Banfield can get that sound."
Andy, who is the engineer in the studio, gets very little recognition because he is the most quiet and unassuming man in the world – but that sound would only be a fraction of what it is without Andy.
He’s amazing, he just sits quietly and suggests by politely saying something like "what if I try that here?"
And Wayne, to be fair, was very receptive to me saying things like "I don’t want it like that, I want it like this."
As I’ve said in interviews before I’m not a technician in the studio – I know what I want to hear but I have no idea how to get it! [laughs]
That’s where Wayne came in. I would tell him what I was wanting, or looking for, he would listen, then say "I think I know what you mean" and bang, he would get it, nine times out of ten, first time.
We would also fire ideas at each other. Wayne would say "what if we try this?" and I’d say "I don’t like it; but what if we try it this way instead?" He would then tell me if he liked the idea of not.
It all worked very well and there was no tension – there was no "I’m the boss! No, I’m the boss!" [laughs]
We had a great environment to work in, it was just a real pleasure to do, and I think that comes through on the record.
RM: Totally agree. You can tell tell the natural from the forced – or when it’s an album by the producer and not the band, who have done not much more than provide the songs.
SN: [laughs] Yes, exactly!
RM: The other strengths of Sky Won’t Fall are its diversity through many musical shades of the blues and your varied songwriting influences. There’s a lovely US coastal feel to your playing, too.
SN: Thank you, I’m really glad you picked up on that – and the really good thing for me is a lot of other people did, too!
No matter what you do you have to think about your audience – at some point, if you’re making an album, you really should be thinking about your audience and saying "OK, am I maybe pushing the boat out a little too much here?"
But on this one – and I’m not a selfish guy in any aspect of my life – I said to myself "I’m going to write and record the songs that just naturally come out; I’m not looking to record in any one style, I’m going to write them, grab them, and stick them on one album."
And I didn’t really care that it might be so diverse that it would scare the bejesus out of anyone who heard it or listened to it [laughter] – in fact I remember half way through recording the album when Wayne came up to me and said "it’s a bit eclectic, big man!" to which I replied "Good! Brilliant!" [laughs]
RM: Given your Modus Operandi for Sky Won't Fall that must have been the biggest compliment you could have heard.
SN: Yes! Because, as I said to Wayne, if you go back to any of The Nimmo Brothers records, or my first solo album, you will find a song somewhere that resembles each and every one of the songs on Sky Won’t Fall. That's true; I’ve been writing songs in those styles for twenty years – just never in the one collection! [laughs] Sky Won’t Fall gave me the chance to do just that and it just felt like the most natural thing to do.
When Alan and I used to write songs for The Nimmo Brothers it would be a case of "right, we need a bluesy one here but we need to have a rockier one there."
For this one I didn’t do that. I just wrote the songs and thought "OK, those ten songs will be perfect."
I did keep a few songs back, though, one because it’s maybe just a wee bit too much country [laughs] but I’m going to keep it for a later project – and as I already had a country based song on the album I didn’t really need, or want, another one.
So yes, what you have identified is right; it is diverse and there are a lot of different influences in there.
I really enjoy that factor of Sky Won’t Fall.
RM: That's what helps make it such an accomplished album and what I would describe as "progressive blues;" you're not hanging your hat on one aspect of the genre or one, defined style...
"That friendship you see on stage, where we are having fun, is absolutely, one hundred percent genuine"
RM: I'd like to talk a little about the making of Sky Won’t Fall, which features the talents of Mat and Craig.
That’s a fantastic album, which deservedly got great reviews across the board – I’m guessing you’re very happy with how it turned out song wise and how it sounded, having worked on the production with Wayne Proctor and his House of Tone team?
SN: Thank you and I am, yeah. It was a good album to make because it all came together really well.
We had been touring half the songs for about eighteen months so they were already bedded in.
We knew exactly how we wanted those songs to sound and the guys knew the spaces that needed filled, the spaces that didn’t need filled, when to leave it and when to hit it hard – that had all become natural to us.
The other half of the album was basically me sending Mat and Craig demos of the songs with my vocal, guitar, a bass line and a drum machine – and I don’t do bass or drum machine very well! [laughs]
I sent the demos over, said "there’s the parts, now you guys do what you do because I am not a bass player or a drummer – I need you guys to do your thing!"
And they did! They put in exactly what I wanted to hear without me having to say "no, I want to hear you do it like this." It was a very natural way to work.
And with Wayne Proctor, we’re back to that incestuous thing! [laughter]
I’ve known Wayne for many, many years – he’s played for me and my brother and he’d always been champing at me about "if you do another album you have to come to me!" or "you should come out to the studio and let me show you what we have here!" I'd reply "Aye, right. No chance!" [laughs]
But of course I was just winding him up – I love Wayne to bits but he’d be the first to admit that I’ve just spent my whole life winding him up about stuff [laughter].
So when this chance came up to do an album with Wayne I took it and it just worked really well.
RM: And it was a true partnership?
SN: Yes, we had a very good conversation about that before we started recording.
I came in to see Wayne and said "I know you produce a lot of bands but on this one I want the two of us to produce it; you’re not going to tell me what to do here and I’m not going to tell you what to do there; I’ll bring my songs in, I’ll tell you what I want to hear and then you and Andy Banfield can get that sound."
Andy, who is the engineer in the studio, gets very little recognition because he is the most quiet and unassuming man in the world – but that sound would only be a fraction of what it is without Andy.
He’s amazing, he just sits quietly and suggests by politely saying something like "what if I try that here?"
And Wayne, to be fair, was very receptive to me saying things like "I don’t want it like that, I want it like this."
As I’ve said in interviews before I’m not a technician in the studio – I know what I want to hear but I have no idea how to get it! [laughs]
That’s where Wayne came in. I would tell him what I was wanting, or looking for, he would listen, then say "I think I know what you mean" and bang, he would get it, nine times out of ten, first time.
We would also fire ideas at each other. Wayne would say "what if we try this?" and I’d say "I don’t like it; but what if we try it this way instead?" He would then tell me if he liked the idea of not.
It all worked very well and there was no tension – there was no "I’m the boss! No, I’m the boss!" [laughs]
We had a great environment to work in, it was just a real pleasure to do, and I think that comes through on the record.
RM: Totally agree. You can tell tell the natural from the forced – or when it’s an album by the producer and not the band, who have done not much more than provide the songs.
SN: [laughs] Yes, exactly!
RM: The other strengths of Sky Won’t Fall are its diversity through many musical shades of the blues and your varied songwriting influences. There’s a lovely US coastal feel to your playing, too.
SN: Thank you, I’m really glad you picked up on that – and the really good thing for me is a lot of other people did, too!
No matter what you do you have to think about your audience – at some point, if you’re making an album, you really should be thinking about your audience and saying "OK, am I maybe pushing the boat out a little too much here?"
But on this one – and I’m not a selfish guy in any aspect of my life – I said to myself "I’m going to write and record the songs that just naturally come out; I’m not looking to record in any one style, I’m going to write them, grab them, and stick them on one album."
And I didn’t really care that it might be so diverse that it would scare the bejesus out of anyone who heard it or listened to it [laughter] – in fact I remember half way through recording the album when Wayne came up to me and said "it’s a bit eclectic, big man!" to which I replied "Good! Brilliant!" [laughs]
RM: Given your Modus Operandi for Sky Won't Fall that must have been the biggest compliment you could have heard.
SN: Yes! Because, as I said to Wayne, if you go back to any of The Nimmo Brothers records, or my first solo album, you will find a song somewhere that resembles each and every one of the songs on Sky Won’t Fall. That's true; I’ve been writing songs in those styles for twenty years – just never in the one collection! [laughs] Sky Won’t Fall gave me the chance to do just that and it just felt like the most natural thing to do.
When Alan and I used to write songs for The Nimmo Brothers it would be a case of "right, we need a bluesy one here but we need to have a rockier one there."
For this one I didn’t do that. I just wrote the songs and thought "OK, those ten songs will be perfect."
I did keep a few songs back, though, one because it’s maybe just a wee bit too much country [laughs] but I’m going to keep it for a later project – and as I already had a country based song on the album I didn’t really need, or want, another one.
So yes, what you have identified is right; it is diverse and there are a lot of different influences in there.
I really enjoy that factor of Sky Won’t Fall.
RM: That's what helps make it such an accomplished album and what I would describe as "progressive blues;" you're not hanging your hat on one aspect of the genre or one, defined style...
RM: You touched a moment ago on you and Alan as a songwriting team.
There's definitely "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll" in your writing styles, given your Americana and country leanings and Alan’s British blues rock core of Free and Paul Kossoff, Bad Company and early Whitesnake. Were those divergences in tastes and influences always the case?
SN: Not at all. Something that’s hardly ever picked up on is that Alan and I had, and have, exactly the same passion for the classic rock thing.
What happens though is when Alan writes on his own that’s what tends to come out; with me everything seems to come out! [laughs].
We both used to listen to Free and Bad Company – and AC/DC, Whitesnake, all the rest – the only difference was from there Alan moved off in to the Metallicas and Megadeaths of the world, which was never my bag. But Alan does carry that in his arsenal. A lot of people won’t hear that in his playing, and sometimes that doesn’t come out, but it is there.
Whereas with me, in later years, I developed an interest in country music – not so much the older, traditional side of the genre but the Americana country and modern pop rock country,
And as you’ll know, when you listen to modern county and then listen to the Black Crowes, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule, it’s all one and the same at the root; it really is.
It's the same with blues. You said "progressive blues" earlier; that’s a great way of putting it because I’m a firm believer in not labelling music.
I know there has to be labels for business purposes – how do we place it, where can we put it, who can we sell it to – but I don't like it. I firmly believe the person playing the music is the one that should decide if it’s blues, or something else.
Now, no matter what I do it’s going to have blues in it because that’s the first music that touched me; if you look at those bands we mentioned – Free, Bad Company, Whitesnake – I’m pretty sure they will all say the same thing, that blues was the first music to touch them.
So that blues is there, but it’s more what you do with it – as I’ve said to people before I’m not a black, sixty-year-old guy sitting on a front porch; I’ve never picked corn and I’ve never had the hardships those guys used to sing about when the first blues records came out so why would I pretend to be one of those guys?
I won’t do it and I wouldn’t be able to do it very well so why bother? I’ll leave that to the guys that actually know the blues they are talking and singing about.
My own form of blues is based around my life and that’s a completely different kettle of fish – I just put my spin on it, play what just comes naturally out of that and hope that enough people like it.
But if they don’t they don’t; I’ve never been one for forcing my music on anyone.
RM: That touches on values both you and Alan share – honesty in your writing and playing while striving to be the best you can, in the knowledge you can never please all of the people all of the time or ever be perfect.
I know I’m a very good writer, reviewer and conversationalist and sometimes an exceptional one – modesty? never met the word [loud laughter] – but I also know I'm far from perfect. So I continually strive to get better.
SN: That’s a great attitude to have though. It reminds me of something I heard a long time ago where a guitar player, whose name I can’t remember now unfortunately, said something along the lines of "if you think you’re the greatest guitar player in the world, it’s over for you."
By saying that you might think you’re the best but you can never be the best; if you’ve stopped learning every day then you’re clearly not going to get any better.
I’m learning every single day; every time I do something I’m thinking "next time I need to do that a little bit better" or I’ll hear someone else playing and I’ll say "OK, I can’t possibly do what he does [laughs] but I could try it this way and then do that with it." I’m doing that all the time; that’s how I progress as a player.
RM: We had a very similar conversation last year, after you played your Special Guest slot at Robin Trower’s Glasgow gig. We both said "why would you not want to stand and listen to every note Robin is playing?"
How can you, as a guitar player, not learn from that experience and how can I, as both a fan and appreciator of such talent, not be moved by the brilliance of someone like Robin, his feel for the music and the notes?
SN: Absolutely. I said on stage many a night of that tour, and in interviews around that time, that I watched Robin every night. That wasn’t a lie – every night.
A lot of tours you’re on you’re going to hear the same thing every show – the same songs, the same words in between those songs, the same stories getting told – you could quite easily switch off or walk away saying "right, I’ve heard that bit more than enough now."
But every night I would play my set, run over to the merchandise stall, sell some CDs and some t-shirts, talk to some people, then – as you saw – the minute Robin started to play I shut my shop down.
That’s, one, as a mark of respect for Robin as the main artist – if I’m still chatting to people I’m keeping them from watching his set – and, two, I wanted to watch him as well!
And I did. I listened to him every night and later would go and talk to his guitar tech and look at his set-up, which basically was Spinal Tap; he was turned up to eleven on every amp [laughs] but as you heard yourself, what a sound!
RM: I’ve seen him a number of times from back in the day to more recent tours and that "Trower tone" never ceases to amaze or impress me.
SN: And the thing is he wasn’t too well on that tour; he had a heavy cold and had gotten sick.
He was weak and very tired in Glasgow and the following gig, Stockton, had to be pulled that next morning.
You know how good he was at Glasgow, but you saw a man who had to cancel the next night’s show!
RM: All the more remarkable then that he delivered so strongly in Glasgow; his feeling poorly certainly wasn’t obvious from his playing.
SN: No it wasn’t and other than Stockton – he couldn’t get out of bed that morning – he soldiered on for the rest of the tour; an absolute example of the show must go on.
That’s another aspect of the craft I learned from Robin; the guys out in front of you don’t care if you’re unwell – well they do care, or would care, if they knew you were very ill – but they are there for a good night out. You’re there to entertain them for one or two hours, give them what they’ve paid their money for and send them home happy.
RM: Yes, you’re there to deliver, not receive – the "giving" rather than the "getting."
You acknowledge, or know you are there, to give of yourself, or yourselves, to the audience; but if you start by wondering what you can get from an audience or what you will get from that night’s performance?
It’s over. It’s about you and not the show or the music.
SN: You’re so right about that. If you go on stage thinking "right, what rewards am I going to get tonight?"
To me that means you’re up your own arse to be honest, or being insincere.
If that’s your goal in life then fine but as I’ve said many times before – and I know it sounds clichéd but it’s true – I want people to be able to come out to my show, listen to it, enjoy it, go home and realise they forgot all about all their troubles for that couple of hours. If I can do that, then I’ve done my job.
RM: And it's a job you’ve been doing it very well with the Stevie Nimmo Trio.
Before the trio of course there was your debut solo album The Wynds of Life, which you recorded in Texas.
That’s a beautifully conceived album of semi-acoustic Americana influenced songs but, as I understand it, you only met the musicians who played on the album just before you headed for the studio?
SN: Actually I met them on the day we started recording the album!
RM: Wow [laughs]. That makes the strength of the performances and their commitment to that record all the more remarkable.
SN: What happened was I had recorded the demos – just me on acoustic guitar – before I went across.
I sent the demos over to the engineer at the studio while the producer, who I had never met but he worked for the record company I was with at the time, said "right, I’m going to hand pick the band you’re going to work with." That concerned me a little bit because I’d never worked like that before.
A short time later he sent me a list of names with a note that said "these are the guys you’ll be playing with" but to be perfectly honest with you I didn’t know any of them!
I started Googling their names and suddenly I’m saying to myself "so this guy Michael Ramos has played with Robert Plant… that guy George Reiff has played with the Dixie Chicks… these other guys Lloyd Maines and Pat Manske played in the Dixie Chicks side-project Court Yard Hounds… nice one Stevie, you’ve lucked out here!"
So I went out, recorded every song on acoustic guitar in the studio booth and sang a guide vocal.
The band then came in, sat back, listened to the recordings and said "play them again."
They listened a second time then, on the third time, said "right let’s go, but you come and play in the studio with us so we can get the vibe; you play along with us, you guide us and you direct us."
And we hammered it – we had the songs by the second, sometimes third take and we were done in two days! I actually had the guys for three days but because we were done in two they all said "we’ll just stay; if you need us for anything else we’re here."
We ended up doing another half day with them and Michael Ramos in particular – he said "I think I can do better on one of the tracks; I can play a better keyboard run than the one we’ve got; let me do it again."
That's what he did, they all went home with half a day to spare and then I did all my bits. And there you go!
RM: It sounds like a fantastic experience.
SN: It was brilliant. I loved the whole process and it taught me an awful lot about being humble.
Those guys walked in to that studio, gave me two and a half days and then left to go to much bigger gigs; but they treated me with the same respect as those other artists they were working with.
I learned a lot about professionalism too; about getting on with the job at hand and that none of us are bigger than anyone else, really. We’re all just creating music and it was great to be part of that.
There's definitely "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll" in your writing styles, given your Americana and country leanings and Alan’s British blues rock core of Free and Paul Kossoff, Bad Company and early Whitesnake. Were those divergences in tastes and influences always the case?
SN: Not at all. Something that’s hardly ever picked up on is that Alan and I had, and have, exactly the same passion for the classic rock thing.
What happens though is when Alan writes on his own that’s what tends to come out; with me everything seems to come out! [laughs].
We both used to listen to Free and Bad Company – and AC/DC, Whitesnake, all the rest – the only difference was from there Alan moved off in to the Metallicas and Megadeaths of the world, which was never my bag. But Alan does carry that in his arsenal. A lot of people won’t hear that in his playing, and sometimes that doesn’t come out, but it is there.
Whereas with me, in later years, I developed an interest in country music – not so much the older, traditional side of the genre but the Americana country and modern pop rock country,
And as you’ll know, when you listen to modern county and then listen to the Black Crowes, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule, it’s all one and the same at the root; it really is.
It's the same with blues. You said "progressive blues" earlier; that’s a great way of putting it because I’m a firm believer in not labelling music.
I know there has to be labels for business purposes – how do we place it, where can we put it, who can we sell it to – but I don't like it. I firmly believe the person playing the music is the one that should decide if it’s blues, or something else.
Now, no matter what I do it’s going to have blues in it because that’s the first music that touched me; if you look at those bands we mentioned – Free, Bad Company, Whitesnake – I’m pretty sure they will all say the same thing, that blues was the first music to touch them.
So that blues is there, but it’s more what you do with it – as I’ve said to people before I’m not a black, sixty-year-old guy sitting on a front porch; I’ve never picked corn and I’ve never had the hardships those guys used to sing about when the first blues records came out so why would I pretend to be one of those guys?
I won’t do it and I wouldn’t be able to do it very well so why bother? I’ll leave that to the guys that actually know the blues they are talking and singing about.
My own form of blues is based around my life and that’s a completely different kettle of fish – I just put my spin on it, play what just comes naturally out of that and hope that enough people like it.
But if they don’t they don’t; I’ve never been one for forcing my music on anyone.
RM: That touches on values both you and Alan share – honesty in your writing and playing while striving to be the best you can, in the knowledge you can never please all of the people all of the time or ever be perfect.
I know I’m a very good writer, reviewer and conversationalist and sometimes an exceptional one – modesty? never met the word [loud laughter] – but I also know I'm far from perfect. So I continually strive to get better.
SN: That’s a great attitude to have though. It reminds me of something I heard a long time ago where a guitar player, whose name I can’t remember now unfortunately, said something along the lines of "if you think you’re the greatest guitar player in the world, it’s over for you."
By saying that you might think you’re the best but you can never be the best; if you’ve stopped learning every day then you’re clearly not going to get any better.
I’m learning every single day; every time I do something I’m thinking "next time I need to do that a little bit better" or I’ll hear someone else playing and I’ll say "OK, I can’t possibly do what he does [laughs] but I could try it this way and then do that with it." I’m doing that all the time; that’s how I progress as a player.
RM: We had a very similar conversation last year, after you played your Special Guest slot at Robin Trower’s Glasgow gig. We both said "why would you not want to stand and listen to every note Robin is playing?"
How can you, as a guitar player, not learn from that experience and how can I, as both a fan and appreciator of such talent, not be moved by the brilliance of someone like Robin, his feel for the music and the notes?
SN: Absolutely. I said on stage many a night of that tour, and in interviews around that time, that I watched Robin every night. That wasn’t a lie – every night.
A lot of tours you’re on you’re going to hear the same thing every show – the same songs, the same words in between those songs, the same stories getting told – you could quite easily switch off or walk away saying "right, I’ve heard that bit more than enough now."
But every night I would play my set, run over to the merchandise stall, sell some CDs and some t-shirts, talk to some people, then – as you saw – the minute Robin started to play I shut my shop down.
That’s, one, as a mark of respect for Robin as the main artist – if I’m still chatting to people I’m keeping them from watching his set – and, two, I wanted to watch him as well!
And I did. I listened to him every night and later would go and talk to his guitar tech and look at his set-up, which basically was Spinal Tap; he was turned up to eleven on every amp [laughs] but as you heard yourself, what a sound!
RM: I’ve seen him a number of times from back in the day to more recent tours and that "Trower tone" never ceases to amaze or impress me.
SN: And the thing is he wasn’t too well on that tour; he had a heavy cold and had gotten sick.
He was weak and very tired in Glasgow and the following gig, Stockton, had to be pulled that next morning.
You know how good he was at Glasgow, but you saw a man who had to cancel the next night’s show!
RM: All the more remarkable then that he delivered so strongly in Glasgow; his feeling poorly certainly wasn’t obvious from his playing.
SN: No it wasn’t and other than Stockton – he couldn’t get out of bed that morning – he soldiered on for the rest of the tour; an absolute example of the show must go on.
That’s another aspect of the craft I learned from Robin; the guys out in front of you don’t care if you’re unwell – well they do care, or would care, if they knew you were very ill – but they are there for a good night out. You’re there to entertain them for one or two hours, give them what they’ve paid their money for and send them home happy.
RM: Yes, you’re there to deliver, not receive – the "giving" rather than the "getting."
You acknowledge, or know you are there, to give of yourself, or yourselves, to the audience; but if you start by wondering what you can get from an audience or what you will get from that night’s performance?
It’s over. It’s about you and not the show or the music.
SN: You’re so right about that. If you go on stage thinking "right, what rewards am I going to get tonight?"
To me that means you’re up your own arse to be honest, or being insincere.
If that’s your goal in life then fine but as I’ve said many times before – and I know it sounds clichéd but it’s true – I want people to be able to come out to my show, listen to it, enjoy it, go home and realise they forgot all about all their troubles for that couple of hours. If I can do that, then I’ve done my job.
RM: And it's a job you’ve been doing it very well with the Stevie Nimmo Trio.
Before the trio of course there was your debut solo album The Wynds of Life, which you recorded in Texas.
That’s a beautifully conceived album of semi-acoustic Americana influenced songs but, as I understand it, you only met the musicians who played on the album just before you headed for the studio?
SN: Actually I met them on the day we started recording the album!
RM: Wow [laughs]. That makes the strength of the performances and their commitment to that record all the more remarkable.
SN: What happened was I had recorded the demos – just me on acoustic guitar – before I went across.
I sent the demos over to the engineer at the studio while the producer, who I had never met but he worked for the record company I was with at the time, said "right, I’m going to hand pick the band you’re going to work with." That concerned me a little bit because I’d never worked like that before.
A short time later he sent me a list of names with a note that said "these are the guys you’ll be playing with" but to be perfectly honest with you I didn’t know any of them!
I started Googling their names and suddenly I’m saying to myself "so this guy Michael Ramos has played with Robert Plant… that guy George Reiff has played with the Dixie Chicks… these other guys Lloyd Maines and Pat Manske played in the Dixie Chicks side-project Court Yard Hounds… nice one Stevie, you’ve lucked out here!"
So I went out, recorded every song on acoustic guitar in the studio booth and sang a guide vocal.
The band then came in, sat back, listened to the recordings and said "play them again."
They listened a second time then, on the third time, said "right let’s go, but you come and play in the studio with us so we can get the vibe; you play along with us, you guide us and you direct us."
And we hammered it – we had the songs by the second, sometimes third take and we were done in two days! I actually had the guys for three days but because we were done in two they all said "we’ll just stay; if you need us for anything else we’re here."
We ended up doing another half day with them and Michael Ramos in particular – he said "I think I can do better on one of the tracks; I can play a better keyboard run than the one we’ve got; let me do it again."
That's what he did, they all went home with half a day to spare and then I did all my bits. And there you go!
RM: It sounds like a fantastic experience.
SN: It was brilliant. I loved the whole process and it taught me an awful lot about being humble.
Those guys walked in to that studio, gave me two and a half days and then left to go to much bigger gigs; but they treated me with the same respect as those other artists they were working with.
I learned a lot about professionalism too; about getting on with the job at hand and that none of us are bigger than anyone else, really. We’re all just creating music and it was great to be part of that.
RM: The Wynds of Life is a lovely album but I was extremely disappointed that it never got the recognition it deserved when it first came out.
Now, on the back of Sky Won’t Fall and the tours, it’s doing some decent business, but it was crying out for promotion and airplay when it was first released.
SN: That was a shame and it was disappointing; I don’t really know what happened there but it was definitely hard to get on the road with it, for a number of reasons.
First, Alan was just starting to take off with King King, which, ironically, was because was one of the first people to tell him he needed to get that band out of the pub circuit and on to the road was me! [laughs]
"This band is too good to be messing about in the bars, bro; get oot there with a proper, professional package behind you and just do it!" So they did – and then some! [laughs]
That left us with just one Nimmo Brothers tour a year and one Nimmo Brother with not much work on!
I didn’t want to just throw a band together though, so instead I tried dong the acoustic thing, but not enough people were interested, or came out to see the shows.
I was only playing to about twenty, sometimes thirty, people for a few of those shows but, those twenty or thirty people were all buying a copy of the album – they’re all buying it and telling me what a great show it was, then going home to comment on social media and saying that a friend had just heard the CD and now wished they had gone to the show!
That's great, but by that point it’s too late, because there’s only so many hits a promoter will take – and that the artist can take – before you have to think of something else; you can’t keep hitting your head off the wall.
So it didn’t get a push because of that; it didn’t get any big PR launch and it just kind of trickled out.
No-one really knew about it at the time and that was a shame, but there it is.
Having said that, if that album had done more business maybe I wouldn’t have switched labels and maybe I wouldn’t have done Sky Won’t Fall!
Now, on the back of Sky Won’t Fall and the tours, it’s doing some decent business, but it was crying out for promotion and airplay when it was first released.
SN: That was a shame and it was disappointing; I don’t really know what happened there but it was definitely hard to get on the road with it, for a number of reasons.
First, Alan was just starting to take off with King King, which, ironically, was because was one of the first people to tell him he needed to get that band out of the pub circuit and on to the road was me! [laughs]
"This band is too good to be messing about in the bars, bro; get oot there with a proper, professional package behind you and just do it!" So they did – and then some! [laughs]
That left us with just one Nimmo Brothers tour a year and one Nimmo Brother with not much work on!
I didn’t want to just throw a band together though, so instead I tried dong the acoustic thing, but not enough people were interested, or came out to see the shows.
I was only playing to about twenty, sometimes thirty, people for a few of those shows but, those twenty or thirty people were all buying a copy of the album – they’re all buying it and telling me what a great show it was, then going home to comment on social media and saying that a friend had just heard the CD and now wished they had gone to the show!
That's great, but by that point it’s too late, because there’s only so many hits a promoter will take – and that the artist can take – before you have to think of something else; you can’t keep hitting your head off the wall.
So it didn’t get a push because of that; it didn’t get any big PR launch and it just kind of trickled out.
No-one really knew about it at the time and that was a shame, but there it is.
Having said that, if that album had done more business maybe I wouldn’t have switched labels and maybe I wouldn’t have done Sky Won’t Fall!
The excellent Americana influenced The Wynds of Life didn't get the attention it deserved when it was
released in 2010, but it's the perfect acoustic-led partner to the "progressive blues" of Sky Won't Fall.
RM: On the subject of both albums, you have a knack, as does Alan with King King, of picking out a small number of what turn out to be significant or extremely well received covers that become staples of your sets. On The Wynds of Life you have a couple, including Storyville’s Good Day for the Blues; on Sky Won’t Fall you have Gambler’s Roll by the Allman Brothers.
SN: I like doing covers but what I really enjoy is picking out covers that no-one has done, or that our audiences have maybe not even heard before – Marc Broussard’s Lonely Night in Georgia for example; a lot of people hadn’t even heard of him until they bought The Wynds of Life.
And Storyville as you mentioned – you’d be amazed at how many people don’t know who Storyville are, which actually upsets me! [laughter]
Seriously, it really does; you’ll ask an audience about them and you can tell there’s a lot of people who don’t know who they are.
Storyville were massively influential on me and my brother, particularly as regards songwriting, so to get one of the Storyville guys, David Lee Holt, to come in to the studio as a special guest and play on The Wynds of Life was amazing.
He became the second guitar player, if you like – he came in, laid it down and was just such a great guy.
The only cover that didn't work so well was when Alan and I picked out Wishing Well for The Nimmo Brothers album Brother to Brother.
Now, we both love that song to death and when we covered it we stayed as close to the original as we could.
I don’t think anyone can say it was badly played but a lot of people did say "why did you do that song?" to which the answer was "because we love it!"
We certainly weren’t trying to make it better, we just wanted to show people we loved the song and we loved Free.
RM: Yes, your nod or homage to a band you loved or that had clearly influenced you. I’d say that was acceptable [laughs]
SN: Yeah, but the problem with that one was it was such a big song that people really were split by it – "oh I don’t know…" or "I’ll always associate that song with Free" and all that stuff. Aye, well, fair enough [laughs]
RM: What did we say earlier, Stevie? You can’t please all of the people all of the time...
SN: No, you certainly cannot! [laughs]
RM: There’s one other cover I’d like to mention, and feature, as it leads directly to one of Glasgow’s great blues men, the late and great "Big" George Watt.
You do a fantastic live version of The Storm by Big George and The Business; it's a fitting homage to the memory of the man and you are absolutely in the zone on that number.
SN: Thank you. The Storm nearly went on Sky Won’t Fall; it was on the list.
Actually it was more than on the list; it was in, it was going on, and it was only because of timing that we didn’t do it.
I don’t mind condensing songs to put on a record – not everyone wants to hear ten minute songs all across an album – but The Storm has to be ten minutes to get through it properly, and I had already had Running On Back To You, which was a seven minute song, and a couple of six minute songs.
I wasn’t willing to compromise with The Storm; I wasn’t prepared to make a condensed version of what it should be – if I’m not going to be able to do it right I’m not going to do it at all.
So we kept it off Sky Won’t Fall but I might do it on a future album; and if we ever do an official live recording it will definitely be on that...
released in 2010, but it's the perfect acoustic-led partner to the "progressive blues" of Sky Won't Fall.
RM: On the subject of both albums, you have a knack, as does Alan with King King, of picking out a small number of what turn out to be significant or extremely well received covers that become staples of your sets. On The Wynds of Life you have a couple, including Storyville’s Good Day for the Blues; on Sky Won’t Fall you have Gambler’s Roll by the Allman Brothers.
SN: I like doing covers but what I really enjoy is picking out covers that no-one has done, or that our audiences have maybe not even heard before – Marc Broussard’s Lonely Night in Georgia for example; a lot of people hadn’t even heard of him until they bought The Wynds of Life.
And Storyville as you mentioned – you’d be amazed at how many people don’t know who Storyville are, which actually upsets me! [laughter]
Seriously, it really does; you’ll ask an audience about them and you can tell there’s a lot of people who don’t know who they are.
Storyville were massively influential on me and my brother, particularly as regards songwriting, so to get one of the Storyville guys, David Lee Holt, to come in to the studio as a special guest and play on The Wynds of Life was amazing.
He became the second guitar player, if you like – he came in, laid it down and was just such a great guy.
The only cover that didn't work so well was when Alan and I picked out Wishing Well for The Nimmo Brothers album Brother to Brother.
Now, we both love that song to death and when we covered it we stayed as close to the original as we could.
I don’t think anyone can say it was badly played but a lot of people did say "why did you do that song?" to which the answer was "because we love it!"
We certainly weren’t trying to make it better, we just wanted to show people we loved the song and we loved Free.
RM: Yes, your nod or homage to a band you loved or that had clearly influenced you. I’d say that was acceptable [laughs]
SN: Yeah, but the problem with that one was it was such a big song that people really were split by it – "oh I don’t know…" or "I’ll always associate that song with Free" and all that stuff. Aye, well, fair enough [laughs]
RM: What did we say earlier, Stevie? You can’t please all of the people all of the time...
SN: No, you certainly cannot! [laughs]
RM: There’s one other cover I’d like to mention, and feature, as it leads directly to one of Glasgow’s great blues men, the late and great "Big" George Watt.
You do a fantastic live version of The Storm by Big George and The Business; it's a fitting homage to the memory of the man and you are absolutely in the zone on that number.
SN: Thank you. The Storm nearly went on Sky Won’t Fall; it was on the list.
Actually it was more than on the list; it was in, it was going on, and it was only because of timing that we didn’t do it.
I don’t mind condensing songs to put on a record – not everyone wants to hear ten minute songs all across an album – but The Storm has to be ten minutes to get through it properly, and I had already had Running On Back To You, which was a seven minute song, and a couple of six minute songs.
I wasn’t willing to compromise with The Storm; I wasn’t prepared to make a condensed version of what it should be – if I’m not going to be able to do it right I’m not going to do it at all.
So we kept it off Sky Won’t Fall but I might do it on a future album; and if we ever do an official live recording it will definitely be on that...
RM: The man himself, Big George, was a major influence?
SN: He was a massive influence on me – in fact George was, quite genuinely, the first blues player I ever saw in my life.
RM: Really? I wasn’t aware of that.
SN: Do you remember the King’s Court in Glasgow?
RM: I do indeed.
SN: I had just come through the smoke haze of the room [laughs] and caught the tail end of a set by this tall, lanky guy playing Voodoo Child; he did the whole shebang with the guitar, then caught a feedback note, pulled the mic stand down low, hung the guitar off it and just walked off!
And I thought "what the hell have I just watched!" Of course that was George.
I went to see him again, discovered his music and, I’m pleased to be able to say, became quite friendly with him over the years.
He also mentored me a lot back when I was playing in a band called The Hideaway Blues Band, when I was about nineteen, twenty; he’d sit in and play with us then we’d have a chat where he would warn me, basically, that everything he'd done I shouldn’t do [laughs] – watch out for this, don’t touch those, don’t drink that and never trust anybody who tells you they can make you a star! [laughs]
RM: Joking aside, that last one is seriously sound advice…
SN: It definitely is. He warned me about all that stuff and I’m so thankful to have known him in that capacity.
I’ve never harped on about what type of character he was because that’s not my thing but we all know that drink and drugs were his downfall – but who’s to say that didn’t make him the character and musician he was? Would he have been the same without that life?
I remember seeing him in a period where he was off the drink and he just couldn’t function; he really didn’t know what to do with himself.
That was quite sad to see because he was obviously geared to live life a certain way and he just couldn’t live that life the other way around – but those nights I had watching him play were just incredible.
RM: On his day he was a fantastic player but, yes, it was a sad downfall – I think he had a stroke a few years before he passed; I don’t think he ever fully recovered from that.
SN: In his last few years he went from mishap to mishap – bad fortune seemed to follow him around – but he gave us a lot of great memories and some great music. That’s how I look on it and remember him.
RM: So say us all and I can't think of a better way to end than to the memory of Big George Watt.
Stevie, thanks for chatting to FabricationsHQ and here's to you going down another kind of Storm on the UK Tour and for many more years to come.
SN: Thanks very much Ross; it’s been really nice talking to you again. See you out on the road!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Stevie Nimmo
February 2017
Stevie Nimmo official website: http://www.stevienimmo.com/
Photo Credits: Lise Ritter (black & white image); Mundellmusic.com/ Mundell Music (trio image)
Article dedicated to the memory of "Big" George Ross Watt (1958 – 2013)
Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and to promote the work of the artist.
No infringement of copyright is intended.
SN: He was a massive influence on me – in fact George was, quite genuinely, the first blues player I ever saw in my life.
RM: Really? I wasn’t aware of that.
SN: Do you remember the King’s Court in Glasgow?
RM: I do indeed.
SN: I had just come through the smoke haze of the room [laughs] and caught the tail end of a set by this tall, lanky guy playing Voodoo Child; he did the whole shebang with the guitar, then caught a feedback note, pulled the mic stand down low, hung the guitar off it and just walked off!
And I thought "what the hell have I just watched!" Of course that was George.
I went to see him again, discovered his music and, I’m pleased to be able to say, became quite friendly with him over the years.
He also mentored me a lot back when I was playing in a band called The Hideaway Blues Band, when I was about nineteen, twenty; he’d sit in and play with us then we’d have a chat where he would warn me, basically, that everything he'd done I shouldn’t do [laughs] – watch out for this, don’t touch those, don’t drink that and never trust anybody who tells you they can make you a star! [laughs]
RM: Joking aside, that last one is seriously sound advice…
SN: It definitely is. He warned me about all that stuff and I’m so thankful to have known him in that capacity.
I’ve never harped on about what type of character he was because that’s not my thing but we all know that drink and drugs were his downfall – but who’s to say that didn’t make him the character and musician he was? Would he have been the same without that life?
I remember seeing him in a period where he was off the drink and he just couldn’t function; he really didn’t know what to do with himself.
That was quite sad to see because he was obviously geared to live life a certain way and he just couldn’t live that life the other way around – but those nights I had watching him play were just incredible.
RM: On his day he was a fantastic player but, yes, it was a sad downfall – I think he had a stroke a few years before he passed; I don’t think he ever fully recovered from that.
SN: In his last few years he went from mishap to mishap – bad fortune seemed to follow him around – but he gave us a lot of great memories and some great music. That’s how I look on it and remember him.
RM: So say us all and I can't think of a better way to end than to the memory of Big George Watt.
Stevie, thanks for chatting to FabricationsHQ and here's to you going down another kind of Storm on the UK Tour and for many more years to come.
SN: Thanks very much Ross; it’s been really nice talking to you again. See you out on the road!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Stevie Nimmo
February 2017
Stevie Nimmo official website: http://www.stevienimmo.com/
Photo Credits: Lise Ritter (black & white image); Mundellmusic.com/ Mundell Music (trio image)
Article dedicated to the memory of "Big" George Ross Watt (1958 – 2013)
Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and to promote the work of the artist.
No infringement of copyright is intended.