Search - Savoy Brown :: Too Much of a Good Thing: Savoy Brown Collection

Savoy Brown Carries On, Rockin' The Blues

Steve Roeser | 03/07/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kim Simmonds formed Savoy Brown well over 40 years ago in England, inspired by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and seeing Mayall's group when a young Eric Clapton was their guitarist. Over the years, there have been countless members of Savoy Brown, but Simmonds has always kept the group going, very similarly to how Mayall has soldiered on with his Bluesbreakers.



For the hardcore blues and blues-rock fan, it's pretty hard to forget the excellent early lineups of Savoy Brown (one of which famously transformed into the very successful Foghat) and those great albums of that era, covering approximately 1968 to 1976.



But there has also been outstanding Savoy Brown music since the '70s, and that's what this collection is all about. Over 70 minutes of quality blues, this CD includes tracks from half a dozen releases of more recent times, and concludes with a previously-unreleased live performance.



Most of these songs are Simmonds originals, but the Savoy Brown treatment is given over to a few of the blues legends, namely Lowell Fulsom ("Monday Morning Blues"), Willie Dixon ("That's All I Want Baby") and John Lee Hooker ("Little Wheel"). Kim Simmonds proves here that, through non-stop dedication to the blues form that he first came to love as a teenager in Britain, he's not only been able to have a fine career in music, but that he has continued to make recordings that stand alongside his great early work."