[From Tucson Blues Society's DESERT BLUESBEAT June/July 1999]
By Stuart Faxon
The gram is a unit of measurement. In Tucson, the Grams is a unit of bassist measurement.
To apply this unit of measurement, Tucson's best musicians seeking a bassist make a few phone calls, and one of those few is to check whether Steve Grams is available. Not only can he fill any bass gig in a superior manner, but if an upright is called for, he is even more often sought out.
Just ask Tony & the Torpedoes, Bad News Blues Band, Tom Walker, Lisa Otey and other prominent Tucson bandleaders and musicians and that's what you'll hear. Grams has also earned the respect of other bassists such as Larry Diehl, Bob Del Grego and Liz Fletcher.
He'll be playing with pianist-singer Otey and drummer Jonathon Westfall at Cottonwood Cafe on this month's first three Mondays.
Grams also plays guitar and mandolin. And he sings. It's not often and not what he prefers to do. But he's often urged to by those who have heard him. "I don't think of myself as a singer," Grams says. "I'd rather listen to a good singer."
Steve's latest project is the original-music band called the Fluffingtons. When someone hears that, scratches his head and says, "Huh? Fluffingtons? Say what?", it's exactly what the bands wants, Grams says.
"It's four sidemen without any bandleaders tellin' 'em what they can or can't do musically or personally. We're saying what we want to say." The other sayers are guitarists Danny Krieger and Richie Cavanaugh, and "the inimitable Ralph Gilmore," Grams says. "Ralph's the best drummer I've ever worked with."
The bassist's description of the Fluffingtons' music is akin to that used by Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites when they called their Electric Flag "an American music band."
"It's American music," Grams says. "It's not blues, it's not country, it's not rock, but it sounds like all of it. That's really what American music is. We're working on a CD and we hope to be done with that this summer. We're intentionally not playing gigs to leave time to record. We're really working on that, and we're just having so much fun."
Grams, 50, is Midwestern to the core. Born in Huron, S.D., he was raised in Fargo, N.D. and Souix City, Iowa. He recalls that practically as soon as he indicated he wanted to try an instrument, his parents saw that he got it -- but not without effort by the recipient.
He had piano lessons as early as the second grade, and in fifth grade, trombone. In the eighth grade it was guitar, and by high school it was electric bass. Young Steve mowed a lot of lawns and shoveled a lot of snow to help raise $700 for an instrument and amp -- a Fender Bassman amp and Jazz Bass.
He started in college at the University of North Dakota and eventually finished his bachelor's degree at Mankato State University in Minnesota. But in and around it all was music.
He went on the road from 1970 to 1975, first with an original music band and later with what he calls "an eclectic band" with country, blues, rock and swing influences. He spent about a year playing in a popular bluegrass band, where he began regularly playing the bass violin he'd studied in college.
"That was when I really got my groove together, playing without a drummer," Grams says. "It made me feel responsible for the rhythm of the songs. The material wan't all straight bluegrass. We did some funky stuff like Ry Cooder and it grooved hard. We just didn't have a drummer" in the bluegraass format.
"There's something about that Southern Minnesota music scene," Grams says. "There are as many outstanding musicians in Mankato and that area as there are in much larger cities. To this day, I go back every summer and I get together with my friends and we play, and it's just wonderful. It's real relaxed. It's what music's supposed to be."
Grams assumed responsibility for funding his college education with money earned from playing music. He graduated in 1976 but had already started a family by that time, so he went to work for a Texas oil company as a sales rep. "I hated that," he says. "The job had me on the road and I coiuldn't play music." He regained the time in 1977 when he went into retail audio equipment sales.
Grams was in that trade in 1979 in Santa Fe, the New Mexican capital and adobe theme park for the rich, a town with little music life. Late that year when his employer opened a store in Tucson, Grams took the opportunity to manage it, thinking he might eventually go to California.
"I got off the freeway late in Tucson," he recalled. Naturally gravitating toward music, he found his University of North Dakota friend, drummer-vibist "Uncle" Dave Jeffrey, sitting in with the jazz group Central Air. "Within one day I was working with Ned Sutton & the Rabbits," Grams said, describing it as a "hillbilly/roots-rock band" doing covers and originals.
Grams has been playing in Tucson since, working with Los Lasers, Tom Walker's Boogiemen Bluesband, Tony & the Torpedoes, Bad News and others. In Los Lasers were John Strasser (now back with Boogiemen), keyboardist Randy Lopez, guitarist Danny Cox, drummer Marx Loeb and George Hawke, later of Dusty Chaps fame.
"We did the first set all blues and R&B as L Mondo Combo," Grams said. "I think that was one of the first blues bands in Tucson. There would be people who would come who loved that and wouldn't stay for the rest, and there would be people who would come in late so they would miss that part. It was like two different bands. Man, that was such a good band."
Outside the Fluffingtons project, Grams is playing with Honeyboy & the Stingers with Barry Stillwagon and others including Richie Cavanaugh, Brian Dean and Ralph Gilmore.
I've been fortunate in all the years I've played," he says, "that I've played with so many good people who've made me look so good. I'm really excited to be working with Barry because I love playing the blues."
He also credits his wife, Cheryl, and kids. "They have really been important to me, in just being supportive of what I've been doing, and I'm thankful for that."
Tucson is a hard town for music perhaps because there are so many good musicians scuffling for too few gigs. In any case, Tucson too often gets a bad rap as a poor town for music, Grams says. "TBS readers need to know that it's important to get out and hear Tucson's seasoned pros. There's just such incredible talent in this town. I've heard maybe 30 out-of-town bands here in the last couple of years, and I've only heard a couple of 'em that are better than our local blues guys.
"People who play music have one of the most important jobs there is. Everybody listens to music. We're lucky to be able to do it.
"It's good for your soul to go out and dance and have a couple of beers. I'm always hearing from people that they have to get up early and go to work. So what if you're tired at work if you've had a good time? Who cares?"