Steve Kimock (KIMOCK) - Satellite City (2017)

Guitarist Steve Kimock is currently in the middle of a tour with his new project featuring bassist Bobby Vega, drummer John Kimock and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Leslie Mendelson. “Satellite City” is a collaboration by K I M O C K and has become a staple of the group’s live sets. Steve Kimock wrote the song with John Kimock and Leslie Mendelson. Leslie starts the tune with a vocal melody and employs the crowd’s participation to sing along “like we’re just a bunch of owls.”

This past Friday, guitarist Steve Kimock officially released his new album Last Danger Of Frost. The album tells a story centered around the years Steve lived in rural Pennsylvania, so it’s only fitting that Steve brought his new project to Pennsylvania on Friday night for an album release party at the Ardmore Music Hall near Philadelphia.

Fans of Steve’s music know him as a guitar virtuoso who’s melodic tones often take the audience on a whimsical sonic journey. Something that might surprise some longtime fans is that Steve actually sings on a few of the new tunes. Many of the new songs feature Leslie Mendelson on the Fender Rhodes and lead vocals. Leslie joins Steve Kimock, John Kimock (drums, percussion, programming) and Bobby Vega (Bass) to complete the quartet. For more on the new album and how Steve put K I M O C K together, you’d be well advised to read an interview the guitarist did with JamBase’s Chad Berndtson.

While Steve Kimock has always had talented musicians in his bands, this band is particularly special. Bobby and Steve have a couple of decades of history together, they can finish each others sentences, musically and literally. John Kimock is quietly becoming not just one of the great drummers in the live music scene, but one of the best composers. Several of the new tracks feature not only complex syncopation, but programmed backing tracks and interesting samples controlled by digital drum pads. Leslie Mendelson adds the perfect yin to the Kimock’s yang. Her soft but powerful vocals add a new dynamic not often heard before in Kimock’s music.

The night was filled with good music, good people and amusing stories of the journey that led to the recording of the new album. In the second set, Leslie picked up Steve’s Teak Cripe guitar to jam one out like Jerry. Steve was not shy about telling stories in between songs including a tale of being attacked by an owl. If you’re a fan of Steve Kimock, or simply curious about this band, this is not the tour to miss. The music has a sense of home and hearth to it as even the stage setup includes wooden chairs for Steve to rest his guitars on and brass lamps to give the stage a living room studio feeling. This is as close as a club setting can come to sitting around the fire with Kimock and listening to whispered fables of the Last Danger of Frost.