Drive He Said 1971

Real music is hard to find. If you've ever felt suffocated in the age of fakery and hype, then Savoy Brown's latest album The Devil To Pay is a blast furnace. Driven by classic blues and age-old human truths - but dragged into contemporary relevance by stinging musicianship and modern savvy - Kim Simmonds' new songs have arrived when we need them most. "In many ways," considers the legendary guitarist, "this is the best album I've ever done. It's fresh and new, and belongs to the twenty-first century". Released on Ruf Records in 2015 - and marking Savoy Brown's 50th year as pack-leaders of the British blues scene - 'The Devil To Pay' was born during a white-knuckle burst of inspiration.

A quirky detour of late-'60s British progressive/blues rock, Blodwyn Pig was founded by former Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams, who left Tull after the This Was album. Abrahams was joined by bassist Andy Pyle, drummer Ron Berg, and Jack Lancaster, who gave the outfit their most distinctive colorings via his saxophone and flute. On their two albums, they explored a jazz/blues/progressive style somewhat in the mold of (unsurprisingly) Jethro Tull, but with a lighter feel. They also bore some similarities to John Mayall's jazzy late-'60s versions of the Bluesbreakers, or perhaps Colosseum, but with more eclectic material. Both of their LPs made the British Top Ten, though the players' instrumental skills were handicapped by thin vocals and erratic (though oft-imaginative) material. The group were effectively finished by Abrahams' departure after 1970's Getting to This. They briefly reunited in the mid-'70s, and Abrahams was part of a different lineup that reformed in the late '80s; they have since issued a couple of albums in the 1990s.

This very progressive album is one of the best made by Rick Wakeman, the Yes' keyboardist. The album, as usual, is very keyboards oriented, although there are outstanding drums and bass parts too…

Eggs Over Easy, the American band that invented pub rock, influenced the careers of Nick Lowe, Huey Lewis, Loudon Wainwright III and Elvis Costello, and laid the groundwork for a grass roots movement that would spawn UK punk, is finally getting its due with a deluxe 3xLP/2xCD set.