Stevie Nimmo - Sky Won't Fall (2016)

It starts with the flick of a switch. Then a squeal of feedback. Finally, the mother of all blues-rock riffs rises from the white noise, and Sky Won't Fall races out of the blocks in style. If the prospect of a new solo album from this titan of the British music scene didn't already have your undivided attention, then thirty seconds into Chains Of Hope, Stevie Nimmo has you by the lapels.
Released in 2016 on Manhaton, it's a curious realisation that Sky Won't Fall is only the second solo album of Stevie's decorated career. In mitigation, the Glaswegian bandleader has been busy: since the late-'90s, there has been the small matter of helming legendary blues-rock outfit The Nimmo Brothers alongside younger sibling Alan. Indeed, Sky Won't Fall was recorded in just ten days snatched between Nimmo tour commitments. 'It was a bit frantic,' admits Stevie. 'But even with all the madness, the project went very well.'
That the sessions at Nottingham's Superfly Studios ran so smooth is testament to the near-telepathic chemistry between Stevie and his crack core band. On drums, Craig Bacon drives the material with power and nuance. On bass, Mat Beable provides the thrilling counterpoint to Stevie's soulful guitar work and evocative vocals. Flanked by engineer Andy Banfield, Stevie is also joined on production by Wayne Proctor, to oversee a mix that bursts from the speakers. 'Wayne was the man in charge of getting my ideas out of my head and down on a recording,' says Stevie. 'Not an easy task but he nailed it.'
As ever, it was Stevie himself who supplied the raw material, arriving at Superfly Studios with ten of the best songs of his career burning a hole in his pocket. In 2016, the Glaswegian has a deserved reputation as a songwriter of eclectic brilliance: stick a pin in his back catalogue and you'll find anything from the Nimmo Brothers' high-octane blues-rock to the Americana stylings of 2010's solo debut, The Wynds Of Life. No wonder that Maverick Magazine dubbed him 'one of Scotland's finest singer-songwriters.'
With Sky Won't Fall, Stevie's muse proves as light on its feet as we've come to expect, with a tracklisting that throws endless curveballs and slips every pigeonhole you try to place around it. 'I wanted Sky Won't Fall to have as broad a musical spectrum as possible,' he reasons, 'to showcase a bit of every side of my songwriting. So there's rock, blues, country, pop-rock and even acoustic. It really is a good representation of what I do.'