Savoy Brown

(continued from previous page) and really had a way of bringing us into the creative process. He would introduce the songs through an idea and we would often record ourselves either at soundchecks or in his studio. He has a home studio. He would often send them to us and say, “what do you think of this, how can we do this better, or is this groove working?” Key changes, etc. would very often happen. So, he was very good at bringing Pat and myself into the creative process, but the initial ideas in the songs themselves were Kim’s ideas. They were always Kim’s. In fact, I was stunned at how much music that guy could write. It was incredible. I will share one story from this record that was a lot of fun for Pat and myself, and that was the song “California Days Gone By.” When the initial demo came to us, we talked about it because the demo had an initial Country feel to it, but the lyrics were about a Rock And Roll band, presumably Savoy Brown hanging around in California in the ’60s. So we messed around for a bit and started talking and figured what we were going to do. So Pat and I just got behind the instruments and started playing a groove or several grooves and Ron kept his finger on the record button for an hour till we figured out what… in our imagination… what was fitting for the song. So what you’re hearing on the record is what we landed on, what we thought a Rock And Roll band hanging out in California in the 1960s would have felt like. It was really a lot of fun doing that. I enjoyed that.

Rock And Blues International: Other than “California Days Gone By”, are there any songs that you listened to… I’ve been around this business for a long time now and someone wrote the song and it may be scripted out, but when the other musicians step in, there’s always a bit of themselves in those songs.

Garnet Grimm: Right, sure.

Rock And Blues International: So, other than “California Days Gone By” are there any other songs or grooves on there where you go, “That was Me.”

Garnet Grimm: Well, yeah! If you listen to “Can’t Go Back To My Home Town,” it’s got a little bit of a Latin flavor to it almost. I had a bunch of ideas for percussion, throwing in some conga parts and stuff like that and Kim seemed to enjoy that, so I guess that would be my signature tune. But I have to say that stylistically there’s a lot of… you might hear some changes in there that are cool. In “Texas Love” there’s a bunch of New York guys trying to a nice raunchy, Texas shuffle on that. I like that. The guitars are wide open on that one. I love that one. The song “Going Down South” is kind of R&B-ish and there’s a tonality with Kim’s guitar. Stylistically it’s nuanced… It’s not like it jumps out at you, but yeah, there’s some pretty cool things going on in there if I have to say so myself.

Rock And Blues International: For you, what is the hardest part of listening to this album?

Garnet Grimm: Well, I think that some of this… the hardest part for me is the last… knowing that this is the last we’ll see Kim on where he was actively upfront and involved with it, you know, making changes and just really intimately involved with it. There’s a kind of malady to know that this creative giant was silenced and it gets a little hard to deal with it. The other thing that is really emotional for me is that when you listen to the songs, they’re a little autobiographical I think for Kim. The song, “Winning Hand” seems to be a little reflectionable. You know, I had a winning hand but it kind of got past me. The initial track was called “Falling Through The Cracks”. He sandwiches the album with that. He begins the album with that and he finishes the album with that. I kind of view that “Falling Through The Cracks” is maybe a nod to a historian saying, ‘not quite getting my due here.’ I feel personally that Kim’s up there with all the greats… Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, you name ‘em, any of those great guitar players… he’s up there with them. He was a pioneer and his writing was huge. He had a huge book of writing behind him. And somehow, he doesn’t get mentioned with those guys often. I wonder if that was “Falling Through The Cracks” for him. I don’t know, but I’m kind of alluding to that, but I wonder. It makes me wonder.

Rock And Blues International: Normally I’ll ask and artist about the meaning of some of the songs that they wrote for an album, but in this case I’m unable to. Did Kim express any feelings or continued on next page details about any of the songs he wrote for this album? Did he say this song is about such and such or this one is about a particular moment in his life?

Garnet Grimm: No, he didn’t come out and say that. No, not that I can remember. But when you listen to the record you’re going to hear, like I mentioned in “California Days Gone By”, you’re going to hear references to hanging out with Janis Joplin, jamming with Jimi Hendrix, hanging out with Humble Pie. You’re going to be hearing those references and that stuff is pretty autobiographical for him. You know, ‘hanging out on Sunset Strip, everyone’s a little high’. Those were definitely probably times he lived, I would imagine. But I couldn’t speak to a person with an experience like that.