Savoy Brown

Shake Down is the debut studio album by the British blues rock band Savoy Brown. It was released in 1967 (on Decca SKL 4883) under the name of Savoy Brown Blues Band and is mainly an album of covers, featuring three songs penned by blues singer Willie Dixon. In addition to Dixon, the band covers John Lee Hooker and B.B. King. Savoy Brown (Originally, Savoy Brown Blues Band) are an English blues rock band formed by guitarist Kim Simmonds and harmonica player John O'Leary, in Battersea, south west London in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they promoted their albums with non-stop touring. After leaving Savoy Brown, musicians became members of groups such as Yes, Fleetwood Mac, UFO and Foghat.

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.

Sadly, we lost Kim Simmonds just this past December, but he lives on thanks to Quarto Valley Records who has released Blues All Around, his final album with his legendary blues rock band, Savoy Brown. The new album from one of the longest running blues rock bands in existence follows Savoy Brown’s critically acclaimed 2022 album, Ain’t Done Yet. Shortly after the new album was completed, Savoy Brown founder, guitarist/ singer/songwriter Kim Simmonds lost his hard-fought battle with cancer on December 13th, just a week after turning 75. While recuperating from his initial cancer treatments, Simmonds had begun work on the new album that was to become Blues All Around.

Except for founding leader/guitarist Kim Simmonds, this long-lived band's 2003 lineup bears no resemblance to the original British group formed in 1966. Still, Savoy Brown deserves credit simply for recording a respectable, even high-quality blues album over 35 years into its existence. Hot off a terrific solo acoustic release, 2001's Blues Like Midnight, a reinvigorated Simmonds signed with high-profile indie Blind Pig and churned out a classy set of smooth yet compelling electric blues. Not as soul-based as in the past, strains of funk ("(Hard Time) Believing in You"), R&B ("Can't Take It With You"), and rock ("When It Rains") help push the group beyond its lackluster and obscure efforts from the past decade. Savoy Brown was least successful when its muscular, amped-up boogie was forced and stilted; yet here the sound is warm and organic.