Steve Kimock's Dead Family History

After I posted that long list of where to find the Dead on archive.org earlier this week, I sort of stopped listening to the Dead. So today's random blogging is goin to look at Steve Kimock. Sure I can talk about his bands, his influence, his history. Instead I have decided to take a deeper look at his musical interpretations of Grateful Dead music. This is a Grateful Dead blog after all.

When I think of Kimock and Grateful Dead music the first thing that comes to my mind is Phil and Friends. He had filled the guitar role very well I believe. His connection doesn't start there though. It began as early as 1980 with the Heart Of Gold Band. This was Keith and Donna's band after they left the Grateful Dead. Kimock was young. Yet he seems extremely experienced. His riffs were very Jerry-like yet they had his own personality behind each note. This band only played one concert. Then Keith had died in a car accident. After this Kimock was in a band called Zero. This would end up being his love affair for a better part of his musical career. Garcia even sat in with Zero for one concert. Click the picture Jerry and Steve for a download!!!

Zero became one of the most popular Bay Area band in the 80s and early 90s. Well other than the Grateful Dead (They were still a Bay Area band right?) Zero has adopted much of the Grateful Dead's style over the years without being a Grateful Dead cover band. They even have Robert Hunter write a few songs for them. Not many bands can get that kind of offering.

Zero has covered Crazy Fingers. This song is perhaps my favorite Grateful Dead cover...ever. (Next to Widespread Panic's 8-23-2008 Morning Dew) Track 10 is Crazy Fingers. The voice should be familiar since it is Donna Jean. Don't Let that scare you away though!!! Click Here To Download 5-25-07!!!

Another amazing Kimock band with yet another endearing cover is Steve Kimock's Crazy Engine. This band is with Melvin Seals of JGB fame on the keys. This band absolutely tears down the house with every show. With this band Kimock has covered a moving version of Stella Blue and a few other familiar JGB songs. Melvin Seals is in the band after all. Stella Blue is track 15.
Click Here To Download 4-17-09!!!

Now that I have covered this ground I can move onto Steve's work with Post Jerry Dead bands. The first I can think of was The Other Ones. This was the first "Grateful Dead reunion band" Since Garcia had died. The music was fun and Kimock added a lot to this lineup. The Other Ones plays Mountains On The Moon. The last time this song was played was way back in 1969 by a little band called The Grateful Dead. The same concert also has a great Scarlet>Fire. Scarlet Begonias brings Kimock full circle in the Grateful Dead universe, this was the only Grateful Dead song on Keith and Donna's Heart Of Gold Band's album which Kimock played on. Click on the picture of The Other Ones to Download 6-29-98!!!



Steve Kimock was also in Vince Welnick's Missing Man Formation in 1998. I am not sure if Missing Man came before The Other Ones though. Here is a full concert you can watch and enjoy. I really dig this band and Vince Welnick in general.



Then in 1999 Kimock had joined Phil Lesh's ever revolving door of musicians in Phil Lesh and Friends. This pretty much ended badly. When Kimock left the band he posted on his website "I ain't going to work on Maggie's farm no more." Either way this musical relationship ended the music was stellar.

Kimock may have been over shadowed with playing during the time that Trey and Page from Phish joined the band for a few nights. Yet Kimock could certainly hold his own. In many ways I enjoyed Kimock's playing better than other "friends" during that time peroiod. A favorite Kimock song of mine, Tangled Hangers, showed up on 10-21-99!! Click the Picture above for a Download of 10-21-99!!!


I know I am leaving out Kimock's work with Mickey Hart here. Maybe that will be another day. Instead I am skipping to 2007 when Kimock sat in with Ratdog. The interesting thing about him playing with Ratdog for a tour was he had NO rehearsals. In his own words, "It’s stupid, man, with a capital ‘D’! [Laughs]. But there really wasn’t much time, either. Basically, I got in the car [in Pennsylvania, where he lives] and drove up to Milwaukee, hopped up onstage and said, ‘Let’s go!’
Obviously I know where this stuff is coming from, and I’ve been playing onstage with rock bands all my life, so it’s not like they grabbed a clarinetist out of a Broadway pit orchestra and said, ‘Here, cover this stuff.’ So I wasn’t entirely clueless on an energetic level. But on the detail-specific level of arrangements, I had a bit to learn or discover. As regards the whole band chemistry thing, that’s not something you can rehearse or second guess; you just have to get up there with the guys and play. Weir’s been playing some of this material all his life, and most of the rest of the guys have been playing in this band for ten years, so they have their thing down in a way, and to enter into that is a little tricky. But I usually know when to shut up and I usually know when to stick my little foot in it." Here is one of the first shows he played with Ratdog.


Click the Picture to Download 7-11-07!!! This show also features special guest Keller William sitting in on a few songs.

I might have missed some stuff but this gives you a good idea of Steve Kimock's history with Grateful Dead music.