CW Jimmy Griffin, Dave Grelle, and Emily Wallace
It’s medically unlikely that Jimmy Griffin was born with a guitar in his hands, but that instruments been a fairly present part of his life for the past two-decades, a time that’s seen him move from one of St. Louis’ hottest young guitar-slingers, to a sought-after sideman, and into a surprisingly-comfortable and evolving role as a riff-steady songwriter. With his latest project, The Incurables, now rounding into a third year of live work and recording, Griffin’s never been as poised to show the world his multiple talents: as a writer of words and music; as a vocalist; as a bandleader; and someone who’s been able to synthesize all of his past experiences into a tuneful new whole.
After the breakup of the much-praised band Nadine – which released records on both sides of the Atlantic and which spawned reams of critical praise – Griffin decided to no longer be content as the guitar player of choice for bands good enough to qualify for his talents. Instead, he took a variety of song ideas to the woodshed. He pushed some aside, modified others and wrote new ones from scratch, eventually cobbling together a set of demos that would become the debut album, “Songs for a Blackout.”
That recording project would find Griffin handling lots of the instrumentation himself, while filling in gaps with St. Louis’ most-tasteful-and-talented rock musicians. That policy would roll into the live setting, too. While The Incurables have played a steady date of live shows, the group’s seldom completely set, with nearly 30 players rounding out Griffin’s band during that time. The two mainstays have been acoustic guitarist Bryan Hoskins and electric guitarist Jordan Heimberger, both of whom add backing vocals. With them, on any given night, are three-five of the top musicians Griffin can find for that show, all drawn the natural warmth and quality of Griffin’s tracks.
