Search - The Good Graces :: Sunset over Saxapahaw

Kim Ware, aka The Good Graces, never intended to make a break-up record. In fact, she never really intended to make a record at all. But while browsing around Atlanta s late great Lakewood Antiques Market one summer day in 2006, she came across a used acoustic/electric guitar, which she snatched up for $90 and quickly named Buzzy due to its propensity to buzz. One problem Kim was not a guitar player. Instead she had paid her dues as a drummer in various indierock bands since the early 90s. Planting her musical roots in Wilmington, NC, Kim was the first of several drummers for underground legends Tex Svengali, and went on to form the band Pacer, who released two albums on Kim s own eskimo kiss label and embarked on a few tours up and down the east coast over the course of their five-year existence. Which brings us to that summer day in Atlanta. Having gone through a tumultuous divorce a couple of years prior, Kim had relocated to Atlanta and was in search of new musical ventures. She knew she had some songs in her, so she sat down with her newly acquired guitar and fumbled around the neck and strings until something sounded right. The songwriting came remarkably easy for her. And while the divorce was definitely a focus, she found a way to temper the depressing topics with lighthearted tales of hope. It wasn t long before the opportunity for Kim to play shows presented itself, even though she says she would have been content with simply performing her songs for her dogs and her new husband Mark, who had played with her in Tex Svengali. But she found herself falling in love with the songwriting process, and it became apparent that she needed to share her songs with a larger audience. So after a year or so of testing the songs out in various Atlanta venues, she headed to her former home state of NC, tracking a few songs with esteemed producer Jerry Kee (Superchunk, Polvo, Kingsbury Manx) at his Duck-Kee studio in Mebane, and the rest with Jay Manley (Velvet) at his home studio. For the Duck-Kee sessions Kim brought along her friend John McNicholas to play electric guitar. John joins her for most of The Good Graces live shows and has a way of turning her music into an interesting folk/shoegaze hybrid. His melodic touches on Over It, What s Wrong, and Unhappy Ending really help the songs branch out from their acoustic folk-pop foundation and give them a spacey, atmospheric feel. Jay and his wife Jane Francis also added their thumbprints to the songs in a big way -- Jay s guitar solo on Stuck Inside transformed it from a song Kim didn t think would make the cut into one of the strongest tracks on the record, and Jane s bass flourishes helped complete that song, as well as Who We Are. Like many artists, Kim says putting her experiences to music was largely therapeutic. I had first thought that moving to Atlanta had provided a sort of closure, but in retrospect I think I needed to sing I m getting over it today, to finally really get over it, she says. Kim also found her time spent recording at Jay and Jane s home in Saxapahaw very inspiring, so much that it prompted her to expand the record from an EP to a full-length, and she decided to name the record after the small town located near the musical mecca of Chapel Hill. Since the recording of Sunset... Kim has performed regularly around Atlanta as well as at Wilmington s annual WE Festival in May 2008, followed by a spot in the acclaimed Athens PopFest that August. She already has songs written for an EP she hopes to record and release in 09, which she claims will take her out of her divorce period, as the songs are much more carefree and fun, but no less personal. For now, she s enjoying the sunset.