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.

Legendary British Blues Rock band Savoy Brown led by founding member Kim Simmonds, announces the release of their exciting new album, Ain't Done Yet, on Quarto Valley Records. The new album follows Savoy Brown's critically acclaimed 2019 album, City Night. "The new album continues the approach I've been taking with the band this past decade," says guitarist/singer/songwriter Kim Simmonds, who formed the band in 1965 in London, England, and is one of the longest running Blues Rock bands in existence. "The big difference with the new album is the multi-layer approach I took to recording the guitar parts. It's all blues-based rock music. I try to find new and progressive ways to write and play the music I've loved since I was a young teenager."

Originally given a limited release in 2004, this Savoy Brown (featuring Kim Simmonds) live album, recorded in Vancouver, Canada, now gets a full national release. The album features wonderful concert versions of the Savoy Brown classic songs,Hellbound Train,Street Corner Talking and Poor Girl. Besides those tracks, we get to hear Kim Simmonds, a master guitarist, extend on the blues Where Has Your Heart Gone, an eleven minute opus! The original sleeve notes from Kim are included with almost sixty minutes of music. Rock/blues at its finest, this CD is a must for new and old fans alike.

A massive, 2-disc compilation featuring cover versions of virtually every Peter Green song written during his Fleetwood Mac period, and a few drawn from his mid-80s solo period. While there are some weaker moments in this 39-track collection, the majority of the interpretations feature blues guitar, piano and vocal at their very best. Rather than simply pay tribute to Peter Green by faithfully imitating his material, the artists have chosen to re-interpret these songs and in most cases the results are superb. The power of Green's influence is felt all the more deeply when so many artists use his music as a jumping-off point. A must have item for blues guitar fans.

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.

Savoy Brown's blues-rock sound takes on a much more defined feel on 1970's Looking In and is one of this band's best efforts. Kim Simmonds is utterly bewildering on guitar, while Lonesome Dave Peverett does a fine job taking over lead singing duties from Chris Youlden who left halfway through the year. But it's the captivating arrangements and alluring ease of the music that makes this a superb listen. The pleading strain transformed through Simmonds' guitar on "Money Can't Save Your Soul" is mud-thick with raw blues, and the comfort of "Sunday Night" is extremely smooth and laid back. "Take It Easy" sounds like it could have been a B.B. King tune as it's doused with relaxed guitar fingering. The entire album is saturated with a simple, British blues sound but the pace and the marbled strands of bubbly instrumental perkiness fill it with life. Even the Yardbirds-flavored "Leaving Again" is appealing with its naïve hooks, capped off with a heart-stopping guitar solo. This album along with Street Corner Talking best exemplify Savoy Brown's tranquilizing style.

No matter the title of this Ruf Records outing, Kim Simmonds, founder, guitarist, and eternal frontman for Savoy Brown, is going straight for its Chicago mojo to deliver this set of scorching electric blues. Aided and abetted by his now longstanding road band – comprising bassist Pat DeSalvo and drummer Garnet Grimm – Simmonds' Savoy Brown comes full circle from its 1965 roots as a British band won over to the loud, gritty sounds coming across the ocean from Chess Records. Opener "Laura Lee," is in the classic Windy City tradition, as inspired by Hound Dog Taylor's house rockin' style as they are Muddy Waters', while "Just a Dream" recalls the moody, slow burning attack of Son Seals.

2017 release from the veteran blues outfit. Blues is not for the faint-hearted. Since the genre first drew breath, it's greatest practitioners have embraced the darkness, spinning tales of hardship and death, hellhounds and devilry. If the sleeve of Witchy Feelin' suggests that Kim Simmonds, too, has a tendency towards the macabre, then Savoy Brown's iconic leader is happy to confirm it. "Blues has always dealt with themes of the Devil, witchcraft and so forth, and I've always written along those lines. At least three of the songs on Witchy Feelin' have that hoodoo vibe…" Witchy Feelin' proves the Devil still has all the best tunes.