Jimmy Griffin Solo w/ Walter Parks

It’s medically unlikely that Jimmy Griffin was born with a guitar in his hands, but thatinstruments been a fairly present part of his life for the past two-decades, a time that’s seen himmove from one of St. Louis’ hottest young guitar-slingers, to a sought-after sideman, and into asurprisingly-comfortable and evolving role as a riff-steady songwriter. With his latest project, TheIncurables, now rounding into a third year of live work and recording, Griffin’s never been aspoised to show the world his multiple talents: as a writer of words and music; as a vocalist; as abandleader; 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 avariety of song ideas to the woodshed. He pushed some aside, modified others and wrote newones from scratch, eventually cobbling together a set of demos that would become the debutalbum, “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.