Album review: SAVOY BROWN – Songs From The Road

RUF Records [Release date 03.13]

They say if you stick around long enough your time will come. In truth, Savoy Brown have probably enjoyed at least three come backs in their 45 year career, but their last studio album ‘Voodoo Moon’ seemed to capture another upswing in their fortunes.

The self explanatory ‘Songs From The Road’ benefits from the recent strong material and also from the best Savoy Brown line-up since the mid-90′s when they featured Pete McMahon and Nathaniel Peterson on vocals.

Released by Ruf records as part of their ‘Song From The Road’ series, this CD/DVD double pack is a good summary of a mature, road hardened blues and boogie band. The sax playing vocalist Joe Whiting brings presence to the songs, where Kim’s own vocals were at best indifferent. The rock solid rhythm section of bass player Pat DeSalvo and the wonderfully named drummer Garnet Grimm, nail the grooves and push Kim to the limit as only a great rhythm section can.

‘Songs From The Road’, is a good reprise of the band’s career, including some of their best new material, even if they do disappointingly finish with 3 covers. The workaday call and response of ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ (from ‘Street Corner Talking’) , Muddy’s ‘Louisiana Blues’ (from the ‘Blue Matter’ album) are OK as encores, but ‘Little Red Rooster’, which comes from ‘The Blues Keep Me Holding On’ album, could have been dropped in favour of the title track.

Much like his late 60’s contemporary Stan Webb, Simmons remains an often overlooked major blues figure and without him the stadium blues-rock and boogie circuit might not have happened.

The early career material works surprisingly well, from the warm tone and gentle dynamics of ‘Looking In’ to the riff driven ‘Street Corner Talking’, complete with unison sax and guitar lines. The show stopping ‘Hellbound Train’ is even better and features Kim on two explosive solos, in between Joe’s impressive vocal.

The band powers into the new stuff with the stop-time rock and roll of ‘She’s Got The Heat’. ‘Time Does Tell’ is arguably the best song on the album, all jangling guitars, strong vocals and poignant lyrics, with Kim adding fluid, unhurried guitar lines with a jazzy feel before returning to the riff. The song reflects a new maturity in both his playing and his song writing, while the swampy ‘Voodoo Room’ features an unlikely ‘hey hey hey’ refrain in the chorus, and segues into the heavy duty ‘Meet The Blues Head On’.

Such is the band’s apparent hunger to race into this third new song from ‘Voodoo Moon’ that you suspect they too recognise the substance of the new material. Unsurprisingly the other new song ‘Shockwaves’, is the best of the encores. It’s a beefy shuffle on which Joe perfectly enunciates the humorous lascivious lyrics

It’s rare for any band to last 45 years let alone still be creative, but this aptly titled live album is an excellent reminder of both Savoy Brown’s unbroken history and the high standards that Kim Simmons has set himself in the autumn of their career.

Kim plays with the kind of taste and finesse that might have been an anathema in early career fire, but he’s surrounded himself with an excellent band and film crew to celebrate the latest renaissance of his enduring Anglo American blues outfit. **** (4/5)

Review by Pete Feenstra

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)