For guitarist Steve Kimock, making music is something that happens organically. So it should be of no surprise that his latest album, Last Danger of Frost, came into being freely and spontaneously.
“I was just pointing a microphone at what I was doing normally, wandering around in my environment,” says Kimock. “Just making and exploring sound for its own sake.”
Recorded in Kimock’s hundred-year-old barn in his native woods of Pennsylvania, Last Danger of Frost is a product of peaceful living and a deep creative connection with his environment that, he says, has marked his 40-year career in music.
Those familiar with Kimock’s music may be surprised at the quiet, introspective tone of the album, which is overwhelmingly acoustic and entirely instrumental, while much of his lengthy career was spent playing electric guitar alongside vocalists, bassists and drummers in traditional rock-‘n’-roll bands.
As a product of the San Francisco rock scene of the 1970s, Kimock evolved his style of heavy improvisational rock alongside the Grateful Dead while gaining prominence in the 1980s with his jazz/rock group Zero. Incorporated into the wider Grateful Dead family of musicians, Kimock is also well known for several collaborations with Grateful Dead members including bassist Phil Lesh and guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir.
For Kimock, music always comes from his surroundings. That’s why he views Last Danger of Frost largely as a celebration of that intimate connection and downplays its differences from his earlier works.
“It wasn’t so much making a move as it was sort of documenting my process outside of the rock band thing,” he says. “I’ll just feel what’s around me, which is not that different than what I do at a gig.”
Last Danger of Frost is, more than anything else, a portrait of where his life is now. Living in the woods of Pennsylvania with his family and garden, Kimock was inspired daily by the quiet life, surrounded by nature and his loved ones.
“Every environment is gonna have a certain harmony to it,” Kimock says. “Sometimes it’s a venue full of people, sometimes it’s a shack out in the woods or something, sometimes it’s being with the kids or in the garden or a barn.”
Kimock feels especially connected to his barn on the outskirts of his Pennsylvanian property, which he employed as a studio of sorts.
“That’s kind of my deal right there,” he says. “My barn and my guitar. I was looking for sounds on the acoustic guitar and on things electronic, there in the barn.”
The album evolved out of his everyday hour-long sessions in the barn, which housed an impressive range of instruments: acoustic guitars, synthesizers and a stringed creation intended to mimic the sound of the rebab, an instrument often used in traditional Afghani music.
Dividing his time between his barn sessions and gardening, Kimock drew inspiration from the coming of spring for his album title.
“If you’re growing food, the phrase ‘last danger of frost’ is telling you when you’re going to plant, and what you’re going to plant, and what you’re gonna grow,” he says. “It’s all mixed up in the planting and growing, and the kids getting out of school — it’s a time for growth. And I just think it’s an interesting thing to say, right there in the Farmer’s Almanac.”
Last Danger of Frost was recorded entirely by Kimock, who played every instrument on the album — simply because there were no other musicians out there in the barn with him. In taking his show on the road, however, Kimock has teamed up with bassist Bobby Vega and multi-instrumentalist Leslie Mendelson.
As for a drummer, Kimock looked no further than his son John for his series of mini-tours across the U.S. Playing with his son, he says, is fulfilling on both personal and professional levels.
“Family will always be one of those most wonderful and natural things you can have,” says Kimock. “And musically, which is an entirely different thing, when I’m up there playing with Johnny, I’m playing with a man who I know is just a super creative, super on-top-of-it musician.”
Kimock says he can’t wait to bring his show to Colorado, where he will stop in Denver and Fort Collins before playing the Fox Theater on June 4.
“If you see us coming to town, come on down,” he says. “This is really fresh and interesting and engaging for all of us right now and we’d love to share it with you.”
