It’s Sunday in the Green Hotel,
Kinross, following the Stevie Nimmo Trio’s March show in the hotel’s cosy
Backstage venue the night before, and as agreed after the gig Mr Nimmo strolls
into the lobby at the pre-arranged time - what he colourfully described as “the
arse end of the morning” - to meet me for a chat. We find a quiet corner, I get the recorder
rolling, and we ease in with a simple question - how’s the UK tour going?
Alright,
aye. It’s about ten dates in, something
like that now, eight dates in? It’s been
pretty good so far, picking up as it goes along. The numbers are going up as publicity starts,
social media kicks in, people start realising “Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s on
now.’’
Are you still finding there are
people discovering last year’s album SkyWon’t Fall for the first time?
Yeah yeah,
every night. You get a lot of people say
this is the first time they’ve seen you.
And then you go back through how they’ve discovered it, and a lot of it
links to King King of course. But a lot
of it links to Thunder. Thunder fans saw
King King supporting them, and they thought “We like this”. Then they checked it out online, found the
Nimmo Brothers, and then found this.
It’s all good!
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| The Stevie Nimmo Trio - don't mention the 'R Word'! |
Some of
them have, especially the one we do near the end, ‘Lovin’ Might Do Us Good’. On the album we kept it down to a minimum,
but it’s one of those live songs you can just go off on a tangent.
I always thought of it being really
funky. But actually, regardless of the
inclusion of the snippet of ‘Jessica’, which I’ve heard you do before, there’s
quite a Southern rock feel to it isn’t there?
Aye, It’s a
funny one, ‘cause I think when I wrote it, it had the funk – almost the
soul-funk - thing in it. But then as the live thing progressed it just
changed.
Craig Bacon does a great job on that,
he gives it a lot of swing, and he’s all over the drum kit.
Aye, it’s
important. He’s all over it, but he’s not
in your face with it, he just keeps it going – aye they’re good boys.
And you added something new to your
set last night, ‘River Of Tears’?
It’s not my
own song unfortunately – it’s Eric Clapton.
What encouraged you to do that?
I’ve been a
massive Eric Clapton fan for years. He’s one
of these guys that, whenever I’m doing interviews and stuff, it gets
overlooked. And even myself, I overlook it.
But then recently we’ve been talking about stuff, we were sitting
talking between ourselves in the band, and Eric Clapton & Friends came up,
from 1985 I think it was when he had Phil Collins on drums, and that came up
and I started to realise that was probably the first video where I thought ‘Man, I wanna do this!’. You know I remember trying to learn ‘Holy Mother’, which is
a Clapton song on that. And then I
started to realise what an influence Clapton has been all the way through. And that song, I’ve loved it since it came
out.
Is this part of your ‘find a
different cover version’ approach, for future reference? Because you’ve talked about liking to select
less well known ones.
That’s it,
yeah. If you’re a Clapton fan you know
that song, but if you’re not so much of a Clapton fan . . . it was never a single, it was on Pilgrim, the album, which I think is
fantastic but a lot of people don’t like it because it’s not very bluesy for
Clapton. When was it, in the Nineties
sometime? [It was 1998.] It was a very produced album. Simon Climie did it with him and it was very
pop. Steve Gadd was on it, but Steve
Gadd did all the drum programming –
now that already puts people off, you know?
But it’s a great album with great songs. ‘Change The World’ was the big
song he had on it, and ‘My Father’s Eyes’.
But that song ‘River Of Tears’ has just always been a favourite of mine
for years and years. And we thought
about it – well I did. And then because
I’m not a big fan of rehearsals – or the ‘R Word’ as the boys in the band like
to call it, so that they don’t upset me – what we tend to do is, if there’s new
material coming in, we tend to do it at sound checks. ‘Cause I believe that’s the best environment
to do it, you’re in the environment you’re going to be in on the night. So we’ve been sound checking it for the last
week or so, and we thought let’s just play it last night.
It’s quite a lyrical kind of guitar intro,
if that’s the right word, and it takes its time.
Yeah, it
goes on for a while. If you listen to
the original we’re doing it by the book, like Clapton did it, because – I know
I’ve said this before, but with cover versions I do like to select them, but I
don’t necessarily want to put my own twist on them. I don’t believe I can better it, I just want
to do it because it’s a nice tune. Same
with ‘Gambler’s Roll’, we do that almost note for note.
It felt to me like you’d reined that
one in a bit, compared to when I’ve seen you do it before.
‘Gambler’s
Roll’? No, ‘Gambler’s Roll’ is one of those songs, you could put a timer on it
and it’s exactly the same time every
night, because we play to click as musicians, so the songs are counted off at
the same tempo every night, and it doesn’t move. So that song has a start, middle and end,
there’s no jamming on that one. It might
sound like it, but it’s exactly the same time every night, to the second.
 |
| There's nothing worse than trying to play a solo with an itchy nose |
So, picking out a new cover like
that, are you starting to think about material for a new album?
Oh that’s
it, yeah. I had a word with the record
company a couple of weeks ago, and they're good for doing another album – his
words were, “As soon as you bring me the material we’ll go in and do it”. So the plan is, I think it’s October, we’re
going to go in and record it, to bring out about this time next year –
February, March, springtime.
That’s a long wait . . .
It seems
like that, but honest to god, for me that time will be gone in a flash, it
really will. So we’ve got another UK
tour in September – October, and what we’ll do is exactly the same as we did
for Sky Won’t Fall, which is on the
days off from the tour we’ll get in the studio and get it done, because you’re
all warmed up. You’re in the zone. But as soon as he told me that I wrote four
songs, so I’m four songs in!
And you had some material left over
from the last one?
I had one
acoustic one that I’ve left in. There
was another one that was written acoustically, but I might turn it into one of
those country ones again, so I might just embellish it with the band.
And did you have a recording of Big
George Watt’s ‘The Storm’ in the can?
No, we
didn’t do it. We’re still hesitating on
that one. It’s such a long song, and I
refuse to condense it. It’s one of those songs that was written like that, you
know, with the parts, and it needs it.
I never saw Big George, but funnily
enough my girlfriend’s brother used to have a recording studio in Glasgow, and
he engineered All Fools Day. And he talks about the two of them having
been in the studio at three in the morning, well drunk, recording the vocals
and the guitar solo for ‘Ain’t Nothing Left But The Blues’, which is one of his
more rocking blues songs. But ‘The
Storm’ is one of those songs that has a kind of universality to it, it’s really
taking you somewhere.
Yeah, it’s
such a simple song, you know? On YouTube of all things I found a bootleg, an
audio bootleg that a sound engineer from Scotland somewhere had found. And he said he’d forgotten about this, and he
put it up. And it started off and it was
‘The Storm’ – and then the words were completely different. George was just making it up – you could tell
he was just making it up! But that must
have been where ‘The Storm’ was born, basically. He obviously wrote a song around it, and then
went and recorded it. It’s amazing, a
mesmeric song – it’s two chords! Again,
as a musician, there’s two chords in
that song.
But it’s what he does with it.
Yeah, it’s
a lovely song.
So do you ever have “eureka” moments
when you’re writing? If you’re doodling
around, and you come up with a riff, and you just think right away: “That one’s
a winner.”
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| Stevie Nimmo and some other guy |
Well, I’m
kinda very brutal when it comes to my songwriting. They either all do that to me, or it gets
chucked in the bin. You know, if I don’t
feel it right away then I stop. I just
go, “I’m no’ getting anywhere with this.
This is not going to be good enough for me.” So I put it away. I’ll either completely put it away, or
occasionally I’ll have come back to it and grabbed a piece from that song, and
went, “Hang on, that goes with that,” fused them together, written another bit
around it, and made another song out of it – that kind of thing. But I’m very self-critical when it comes to
songwriting. I really do – I don’t have
an ego, I don’t need it stroked, I don’t need my back slapped, and patted and
all that. If I think it’s a good enough
song then that’s alright for me. You
know, I don’t think everyone else should think it is. But if I let it pass that litmus test, if you
know what I mean, then I believe it’s as strong as I can do. And if I put that out then I can only do my
best, and if people like then great, and if they don’t that’s fine. But I know that I’ve not put it out as a bad
tune, badly played.
Filler . . .
Nah, I
don’t do that – any more. In the past I
might have put one or two, with my brother – not even fillers, we wrote
songs. But we did say, we need a shuffle
blues here, or we need a slow blues here, and we kinda wrote to formula for
it. It’s not to say we didn’t write a
song – still decent songs – but now I just think I’m gonna write songs and put
them out. Because my style’s been formed
now, I don’t need to think about it. And
I think people have accepted that, which is good. They let me play what I want to play.
You say a style, but you manage to
incorporate different things, which takes me on to the next question. It’s well documented about you and your brother
Alan being introduced to the classic rock and blues stuff by your mum. But you love country music and Americana – so
where did that come from?
You know, I
can’t remember who introduced me to that.
It was probably the Eagles, because the essence of the Eagles is country
music. So that would go back to the
house again. That was always on in our
house, the Eagles. So yeah, I would say
the Eagles, and that pushed me towards the harmonies. The harmonies drew me towards country
music. So that drew me in. And then – the old style country I’m no’ that
much of a fan of, I can appreciate it but it’s not my thing, you know. But then some of the more modern stuff came
out – you know, Rascal Flatts and all that kind of stuff. And I like all that kind of stuff, and it’s
the harmonies more than anything. And
then you start listening to it, and you realise how wonderful these musicians
are. I mean, they’re outstanding.
Friends of
mine were at the Zac Brown Band last night in Glasgow, and I was as jealous as
could be. I love that band. The Zac Brown Band, I don’t know if you’ve
ever heard them, they’re a country band by name. [I hadn’t,
to be honest, so for anyone else in the same boat, check out this video of ‘JumpRight In’.] But you listen to that
and you’d go, “Where’s the country?”
It’s just rock – Southern rock.
That link is there, isn’t it?
‘Freebird’, and all that? ‘Sweet
Home Alabama’? There’s a country thing
in there as well.
So – your first solo album Wynds Of Life leaned in that direction,
with a kind of semi-acoustic sound, and you recorded it in Austin, Texas. How did that come about?
It was the
record company I was with, Armadillo Music, at the time. They, for whatever reason, had started
recording out there. I don’t know how it
first got introduced to them, but first and foremost they got on really well
with the team out there. And then
secondly they could actually do an album out there cheaper than they could in
the UK. Now that was just crazy. So
because it was just me going out, it was way cheaper just to put me on a flight
out to Austin.
But the notion of it, the direction
you took . . .
That was
already there.
You’d done New Moon Over Memphis before with Alan, hadn’t you, which was
acoustic?
You see
that was already there. And I really do
enjoy the acoustic thing, I really do. I
enjoy sitting with an acoustic guitar, I enjoy doing little spiels before the
songs, having a chat in that intimate environment. But I tried doing it live, and I’m not gonna
lie, I couldn’t pull a big enough crowd.
So if you can’t pull a big enough crowd then no-one’s going to keep
doing it, and you have to say, “Right, okay, it’s not happening.”
The album was a semi-acoustic rather
than a purely acoustic thing though, wasn’t it?
Yeah – the
songs were already written in that kind of style anyway. But the musicians made it even more so. The guys out there just put that twist on it,
and it got transformed into something else, which was amazing.
And part of them doing it cheaper is
that they nail it in a couple of days.
Aye – the
guys were just really, really good players, you know? Top level, absolutely. The guy that produced it, Pat Manske, he
pulled out what he called his ‘A List’ players for it. And they really were. The bass player [George Reiff] had been on
tour with the Dixie Chicks. The keyboard
player [Michael Ramos] had been out with Robert Plant and the Dixie Chicks.
Was that a bit daunting, when you
could see what these guys could do?
Naw,
no. They were just sitting here like you
and me, right now. And that was one
thing, I say it in
live shows, but I learned a lot from those guys. You know, I’ve always been humble in my way
of life – each to their own, and all that kind of stuff. I’ll no’ let someone stand all over me, don’t
get me wrong, but – I never criticise other people’s music. Each person does what they do, and if they
believe in it then I’m a fan. I might
not like it, but that’s music –
taste. But these guys were like, “how’re
you doin’,” laid it down, and that was it.
And then they were off playing with other people who were playing in
stadiums. They were professionals – they
didn’t differentiate between me, and Eric Clapton.
 |
| Stevie Nimmo cooking up a storm at Oran Mor in Glasgow, 2016 |
Yeah, you’re the guy who’s paying
the rent today . . .
Exactly! If you want to look that way, that’s one
way. But also – you’re the musician I’m
working with today. Because their fee is
their fee, they’ll be getting the same from everyone. They were so easy to work with, it was a
pleasure.
You obviously listen to all sorts of
stuff, people that I’ve never heard of, and I listen to a lot of music. So who are you and they guys listening to on
your travels just now?
What am I
on at the moment? I’ve been listening to
a lot of Tedeschi Trucks – I’ve been listening to Made Up Mind, the one with the buffalo on the front. That one, you see, when I heard it at first
it didn’t hit me – it was a grower. The
third one I struggled with, but Made Up
Mind – I’ve got that on constantly.
And I’m starting to listen to a little bit of this guy Marcus King, who
Warren Haynes has been championing a lot, a young fella. Again, Southern rock. And I always jump back into the Allman
Brothers and stuff like that. But I
listen to a lot of stuff, like modern stuff – Ed Sheeran, he’s a strange beast,
but he’s a very talented guy.
I don’t know if you’ve come across
Matt Andersen, a Canadian guy, who’s coming to Britain in May.
A big
guy? I think I might have heard some of
his stuff.
I’ve been listening to his latest
album, and it finishes with a track called ‘One Good Song’, where he says that
all the ups and downs of a musician’s life are worth it, if you find yourself
that one good song. Are there any of
yours that you look at, and you think, “If there’s nothing else, there’s that one.”
Ha ha! Er, no actually. I kind of think in recent years most of the
songs I’ve written have been personal songs, so they’ve all meant
something. In the past I might have
written songs with someone else in mind, or written it through the eyes of
someone else – I’ve done that before, take someone else’s life, and look at it
through their eyes and write as that person.
It’s not me, but I can touch on it.
But all the recent ones I’ve written are all of equal standing for
me. There’s nothing on Sky Won’t Fall
that I go, “if I was to do that album again tomorrow I wouldn’t put that on
it”. Nothing at all. Wynds
Of Life? There’s one or two songs
maybe I would change how I did it, but I wouldn’t do other songs. So I’m proud of all of them really. I don’t think I have one that stands out.
That personal connection point is
interesting. Because the blues and soul
music, that’s what it purports to be.
But a lot of the time people can be going through the motions,
lyrically.
I think so,
sometimes.
Whereas you, and Alan I would say,
there’s an element of – this is real, we’re really writing about relationships,
and emotions, and the music becomes part of that as well.
Yeah. One of the songs on Wynds Of Life, the very last song, ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’
I think it’s called, it’s just me and the guitar. And that was a really personal song about
having been unwell, and the thoughts you have when you’re unwell. So I just put it all on paper, and recorded
it. And at the very few acoustic shows I
have done, I’ve done that, and one woman came up at the end and she started
crying. And I thought, “Oh, shit!” And she said “No no no. I’ve suffered with the same kind of illness,
and I had every one of those thoughts that you put down in that song. Every one of them. And the fact that I’m standing here, watching
you having been through it, and you’re still there, gives me hope.” And I thought “Man – that’s huge!” You know, that’s huge, that transcends
everything musically, that’s human touch.
And I thought that’s what it’s all about. So going back to your question, that’s
probably one of the songs that seems to have touched someone’s life very
importantly. So that’s probably one of
the songs that I would say meant something to other people as well as me –
which I suppose is what every artist strives to do, isn’t it?
And I guess you don’t get that
feedback all the time, about things that have really made a connection . . .
No – not
that I want people to cry all the time!
[Laughs]
No, it can be fun too. For example my partner raves about ‘Lovin’
Might Do Us Good’ – she loves that to bits.
That’s a
funny one, because that again is a very personal song. But because of how the music is, it sounds
kinda “Oh yeah, here we go”. But
lyrically it means a lot, you know?
People take people for granted, and we don’t realise we’re doing it, and
that’s what it's all about. It’s like one
day you look and think – “You’re still here, and you’ve put up wi’ me for so
long, and I don’t tell you this enough.”
And Stevie Nimmo having put up with
me for long enough, we then started to wrap things up, exchange some final
pleasantries, and get ready to go our separate ways.
Sky Won’t Fall was the studio album that really hit the bullseye for me in 2016. It was a pleasure to have the chance to chat
with its maker, and a more straightforward, accommodating gent than Stevie
Nimmo you could hardly hope to meet. Now
here’s looking forward to that next album in Spring 2018!
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