Farewell to Steve Kimock Crazy Engine

Well, the news has hit the streets. Below are the “official” statements from Kimock camp and myself in regards to my departure from the Steve Kimock Crazy Engine. I’ll probably return with some “unofficial” thoughts and comments, and as always, my open door policy to friends, fans, Facebook acquaintances and strangers stands, so feel free to contact me with your thoughts.

I know everyone's biggest question for the moment is..."Will the blog continue?" And I believe that answer is YES. There are still plenty of interesting adventures ahead on the road with FGC, and you will (hopefully...probably) get to read about them here. Now on to business...


From Steve Kimock Productions:

Steve Kimock Crazy Engine is saying farewell to bassist Janis Wallin. Conflicting schedules and diverging creative interests have led to a mutual agreement to part ways, and while all parties are confident this is the right choice, we will miss Janis and are sad to see her go. Steve's inclination to fill the bass chair promptly combined with impractical travel logistics have led us all to conclude that it would be best for Janis's departure to be effective immediately; however, we look forward to working together in the future as time and schedules permit. We'd like to thank Janis for a wonderful couple of months, and we sincerely wish her all the best!


From me:

After speaking at great length, Steve and I came to a mutual agreement that although the Crazy Engine has thus far made some fantastic music and has been a positive experience for all involved, it's not the right assembly of players for a long-term project. With Steve's and my own artistic and professional goals in mind, the Crazy Engine and I will be parting ways effective this weekend. I regret the last minute nature of this change and apologize to those that were particularly looking forward to seeing me with the band in the coming weeks. Working with this incredible group of musicians and crew has been the experience of a lifetime. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity, and look forward to working with Steve again in the future. At this point however, I'm most excited to return my focus full time to Family Groove Company!

Thank you Steve, Melvin, Johnny, Cheryl, Shirley, Brian, Charlie, Chris, Jenn and the FLOK for a wonderful adventure. And to Jordan, Adam, Mattias, Mike, and the supportive FGC fanbase who I love dearly, I can't wait to get down with you all at the next show!

Janis

6/7/09

Well, this would have been a posting on the second night at Mountains of the Moon Festival, but the show was unfortunately canceled. Don't ask why, I'm just the bass player. So instead, please enjoy some more photos from beautiful Nelson, British Columbia, and feel free to click the link at the bottom to view more.










Click here to check out a bunch more photos from the trip!

6/6/09 Mountains of the Moon Festival, Nelson, BC

My day started off with 11 awesome hours of sleep, and I awoke wondering if the rest of the band had made it OK. (Steve, Johnny, and Charlie were traveling on later flights than Brian, Melvin, and me). Not only did they not get to the hotel until 10am that morning after traveling all day and night, I find out that Charlie was not admitted into Canada and was stuck at a hotel just across the border. What could have possibly caused this snag?

(a) Charlie is a Russian spy
(b) Charlie is a registered sex offender
(c) Charlie tried to smuggle in contraband everything up his butt
(d) Charlie could not pronounce "out" and "house" or "eh" properly when grilled by the border patrol

I quickly rebounded from the shock of the absence of my usual tour/meal buddy, and spent the afternoon exploring Nelson alone. I had some great breakfast at a local restaurant recommended by the promoter and then took a long walk around the town and down by the lake. The city is very quaint, and the scenery is breathtaking.

Later that day, the promoter took us and Portable Payback (Jurassic 5 offshoot) out for an early dinner at a Greek/Italian restaurant. Still slightly disgruntled from the previous evening's ridiculously long wait for food, we were all pleased to find the salads/appetizers arriving after 9 minutes and the entrees after 22 minutes. Woohoo! I became a little chummier with the Jurassic 2, and learned that Soup has a weakness for Dawson's Creek, and Mark has a weakness for whipped cream (stealing all of it off of his neighbor's dessert plate).

We headed over to the festival around 6pm, driving about 30 miles (err, 48 kilometers) to Salmo. The festival site was located on a sort of plateau, surrounded on all sides by mountains. As a resident Midwesterner for the past 7 years, the scenery around here never ceases to be completely and totally entertaining to me! Not to mention, there were dogs everywhere, so I upped my dog-pet count in a serious way!

The production was running late and by the time we got on stage, the sun was almost down and it was insanely cold...."Cold as a witch's tit," to quote Mr. Steve Kimock. We hit a further delay when Melvin realized that his Hammond organ was not playing in the proper key due to a weak power generator. We spent a few minutes troubleshooting before finally deciding to just tune the guitars and bass to match the organ, which was almost an entire whole step down. I wasn't prepared for the impact this would have on the music, as every song sounded totally strange and slightly off center from where my ear wanted it to be. But it was definitely interesting!

The show went well despite cold toes and fingers and strange tunings. We had a fun "Footprints" and another exploratory "Long Form Part 4" that melded into a samba-type groove at the end. (Apologies, but given the absence of Charlie, I don't believe this show was recorded!).

After the show, we hustled back to the hotel to thaw out. Round 2 at the festival is tonight and the weather is forecast to be just as cold. I think I'm going to go out and find some hand/toe warmers!

Greetings from Canada!

Here's how a "typical" band travel day goes when you have to cover 2000 miles and cross 2 time zones and an international border to get to the next shows.

Little Rock, Arkansas > Nelson, British Columbia

6:00am - Wake up after 4ish hours of sleep from gig the night before
6:45am - Lobby call for the Little Rock airport for an 8:20am flight.
7:05am - Transported to airport, checked in, security screened, already at gate for 8:20am flight (really would have loved that extra 45 minutes or so of sleep)
9:30am - (Mountain Time) Arrive in Denver for 2+ hour layover
10:30am - Breakfast at an airport cafe with Melvin and Brian
12:00pm - Fly from Denver to Spokane WA (first time in WA...cool!)
1:30pm (Pacific Time) Arrive in Spokane, meet up with other festival band (featuring 2 members of Jurassic 5!) and take 3.5 hour shuttle bus up to Canada
4:45pm - Middle-of-nowhere border patrol detains us for an entire hour
6:45pm - Finally arrive at hotel in Nelson BC
7:15pm - Sit down to dinner with the Jurassic 2 and promoter at a hip restaurant in Nelson.
8:00pm - Still waiting for food to be served...
8:15pm - Still waiting....
8:30pm - Salads served. Musicians getting grumpy.
8:50pm - Entrees finally served. Musicians scarf like animals.
9:30pm - Pet dog outside restaurant!!

19 hours later, I'm finally going to bed. GOOD NIGHT!!!

Waiting at the Canadian border. Will they let us stupid Americans in?


View of some Nelson mountains from the hotel doorstep:

6/4/09 Wakarusa Festival, Ozark, AR

The Crazy Engine journey reconvened today at Wakarusa Festival in Ozark, Arkansas. I flew into Little Rock last night, checked into the Holiday Inn, and enjoyed some in-room dinner, TV, and a long night's sleep. Recharging with Waffle House in the morning, I was ready to reconnect with my bandmates and rock Arkansas!

We were scheduled to have festival-provided transportation leaving the hotel at 2pm today. But apparently, some genius decided to combine our ride with not one, but TWO, different airport pick-ups, both of whose flights were delayed, and we ended up leaving over an hour late. I thought to myself, "These better be important people we're picking up at the airport." Turns out it was just the girlfriend of a fairly small band on the bill, and another musician who wasn't playing till latenight. With a 2.5 hour ride to the festival, this wasn't leaving much room for production preparation and made the day start out very hectic. Brian was livid. I was annoyed, but glad that I wasn't in charge and didn't have to deal with the mess and consequences.

The weather in Little Rock was cold and threatening to rain, but 2 hours away at the festival site, it couldn't have been more perfect. Sunny and warm, virtually no humidity. We arrived only about an hourish before showtime, and once again, I was thankful I didn't have any setup to worry about. I attempted to grab some dinner backstage, but no vegetarian choices amongst the 5 or so trays of meat entrees, with the exception of fruit salad. Worst. Catering. Ever.

Setup and monitor check were brief, but I think we got things dialed in OK. The first tune was a little shaky, but we all eventually settled back into our groove. The "Long Form Part 4" at this show was particularly adventurous, and kind of precarious at the end, but we made it through. The crowd was fun, and it was nice to see familiar faces out there and have some Midwest FGC representation, with lots of "Janis!!" calls. (Thanks guys!!!) George Porter Jr. showed up and sat in for the last 2 songs, and I hung out side stage with Charlie and enjoyed watching the crowd.

Post-show, I was immediately whisked away with Johnny on a golf cart, with the promise of a better dinner at the destination. We arrived at a huge house at the edge of the property, a secret house serving better dinner than backstage. I sat at a long table with Warren Haynes and his band and crew at the other end, while a bunch of servers brought us several courses of food with more substantial veggie options this time around. I got to hang with Jason and Travis from EOTO for a few minutes before once again being whisked away, this time by the van leaving the festival for the hotel. Another long 2.5 hour drive, and now I have to wake up in 5 short hours for our trek across the country to British Columbia. Worst. Routing. Ever.

See you in Canada, eh!!