Goin' To The Delta Savoy Brown

• 1 Laura Lee 04:23
• 2 Sad News 06:13
• 3 Nuthin' Like The Blues 04:56
• 4 When You've Got A Good Thing 05:17
• 5 Cobra 04:25
• 6 Backstreet Woman 06:06
• 7 Goin' To The Delta 05:55
• 8 Just A Dream 04:54
• 9 Turn Your Lamp On 03:47
• 10 I Miss Your Love 04:56
• 11 Sleeping Rough 04:59
• 12 Going Back 04:23
• Total Runtime 01:00:14

Info for Goin' To The Delta

Pack a bag. Buckle up. Hit the gas. Goin’ To The Delta invites you to ride shotgun with Kim Simmonds on a musical road trip through his spiritual homeland. “When I started the band back in 1965,” says Savoy Brown’s iconic frontman and guitarist, “The concept was to be a British version of a Chicago blues band. Now, here we are in 2014, and once again, the music on this recording echoes the blues sounds of Chicago.”

Goin’ To The Delta is the sound of a band with the wind in their sails. Following 2011’s acclaimed Voodoo Moon and last year’s whip-cracking live set, Songs From The Road, Savoy Brown are in a swagger, and you can hear the momentum on these 12 love letters to American blues. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Kim applies his own unmistakable thumbprint to the classic blues shapes, from upbeat Windy City bouncers like “Laura Lee” and “Nuthin’ Like The Blues” to the weeping slowie “Just A Dream” and the stinging instrumental “Cobra.”

“The band’s style has evolved in many directions, whilst always keeping the blues as its root,” says Kim of the Savoy Brown back catalogue. “Now we’ve come full circle. The songs and playing on this album are straightforward in focus and as basic as blues should be.”

Maybe so, but when it comes to the lyrics, Goin’ To The Delta gets complicated. Kim has always been a great chronicler of human relationships, and the women come and go on this album, too, from the ex-lover who changes the locks on the raunchy “Sleeping Rough” to the mistress who lets him sneak out the back-door on “Turn Your Lamp On.” Along the way, there’s sorrow on “Sad News” (“I’m like a star without a sky”) and redemption, too, in the closing “Going Back” (“I’m going back to my baby, been away too long…”).

Like the women, plenty of musicians have flowed through the Savoy Brown lineup over the years, but after the stellar contribution of Pat DeSalvo (bass) and Garnet Grimm (drums) to Songs From The Road, it was a no-brainer to assemble that same rhythm section at Subcat Studios, Syracuse, New York. “The band on this album gets to show what great blues musicians they are,” says Kim, “Playing tunes right in their wheelhouse. Through the changing years, my guitar playing has stayed the same, though many say I’m playing guitar better than I did in the ’60s.”

Anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of blues-rock will appreciate that’s no small statement. Rewind to 1965 Kim was a lynchpin of perhaps the most exciting scene in history, establishing Savoy Brown in the first wave of British blues boomers, signing to Decca, opening for Cream’s first London show and being namedropped in the same breath as peers like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix (with whom he jammed). Even then, the guitarist was emerging as the band’s driving force. “I had a vision,” he says. “And the exciting thing now is, that vision is still alive.”

Soon enough, Savoy Brown had achieved what most British bands never did – success in America – and became a major Stateside draw thanks to their high-energy material and tireless work ethic. “There’s way too much said about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” Kim told Classic Rock magazine in 2008. “It’s such a cliché. We were all extremely hard-working guys. When we came over to America, we were like a little army. I look at that time as being filled with incredible talent.” Times changed, of course, and by 1979, Simmonds had moved from a London he no longer recognised – “The punks were everywhere!” – to settle permanently in the United States. The Savoy Brown band members came and went, and the music scene shifted around him, but the guitarist stuck thrillingly to his guns and reaped the rewards, performing in iconic venues like Carnegie Hall and the Fillmore East and West, releasing more than 30 albums, and later enjoying a well-deserved induction into Hollywood’s Rock Walk Of Fame.

Coming up on 50 years in the making, Kim Simmonds’ career is sprawling and eclectic, but every move he’s made has always been underpinned by his deep love for the blues. Now, in February 2014, Goin’ To The Delta continues to bring that passion to the surface, channeling the classic vibe of the US blues masters through Kim’s modern worldview to create a musical statement that is both fresh and familiar. “Maybe Shuffles, Boogies and Blues should have been the album’s title,” notes the bandleader. “It’s certainly what you’ll be listening to for the next hour or so …”

Kim Simmonds, guitar, vocals
Pat DeSalvo, bass
Garnet Grimm, drums

Savoy Brown
Legendary .... a blues/rock institution .... true innovators. These are just a few of the ways Savoy Brown has been described over the past 47 years by music critics and fans.

One of the earliest of British blues bands, with founder guitarist Kim Simmonds at the helm, Savoy Brown helped launch the 1967 UK blues boom movement that brought blues music back to the USA and invigorated the style from then on. In the process, the band became part of the framework that launched the rock and roll music of the 1970’s. Their influence now stretches into modern rock as we know it today.

The band recorded their first singles for Mike Vernon’s Purdah label in 1966 and quickly followed up with the landmark album “Shakedown”. Singer Chris Youlden joined the band in 1968 and many classic records appeared, with songs such as “I’m Tired” and “Louisiana Blues” becoming radio staples. Blues-rock and boogie music always was the band’s calling card and they captured, forever, the spirit of the music on the live side of “A Step Further” (1969) with a twenty-minute boogie “The Savoy Brown Boogie” dedicated to fans in Detroit.

By 1971, Youlden had departed on a solo career and band members Dave Peverett, Roger Earle, and Tony Stevens left to form their own group, Foghat.

Kim Simmonds rebuilt the band using former members of the blues band Chicken Shack and vocalist Dave Walker. That year, “Street Corner Talking” brought the band its best chart success up to that date. “Tell Mama”, “Street Corner Talking”, “All I Can Do Is Cry” and the band’s funky re-make of the Motown classic, “I Can’t Get Next To You”, took the band to platinum status and placed them in front of wildly enthusiastic rock audiences in arenas all over the world.

After the successful run of the early to mid 70's, Kim moved operations to the USA and continued making the kind of records he wanted to make with a succession of line-ups. Records as diverse as the acoustic blues “Slow Train" to the hard-hitting "Rock And Roll Warriors" appeared. All were eagerly accepted by the fans.

A three record deal with Crescendo in 1987 took the band into more of a rock direction, with records such as "Live 'n' Kicking" placing the group in a live setting, where they've always excelled.

In the '90's, "Let It Ride" was released. Kim enlisted Pete McMahon for vocal and harmonica duties in 1994 and added ex-Robert Cray drummer Dave Olsen to record "Bring It Home" for Viceroy. This set the tone for the next five years.

Nathaniel Peterson was brought in to handle bass playing and singing in the late 1990s. After touring the world extensively for three years, "The Blues Keep Me Holding On” was released in 1999 by Mystic Music. This modern blues record brought the band's epic music journey full circle.

With new goals in mind, Kim Simmonds took over vocal duties in 2001, leading to the 2003 release, "Strange Dreams", on Blind Pig Records. This was a hit with critics, and fans alike. Kim, as front man vocalist, fit the times perfectly. Changing into a three piece classic blues/rock outfit in 2006 and still doing double duty as guitarist and vocalist, Kim released the bands 30th album “Steel.”

In 2009, after nearly a decade of singing lead vocals, but wanting to concentrate again on his guitar playing, Simmonds brought in Joe Whiting as lead singer. The band thus became a four-piece aggregation with Garnet Grimm on drums and Pat DeSalvo playing bass. The new changes coincided with the release of a retrospective album “Too Much of a Good Thing” that covered the years 1992-2007.

The year 2011 brings the release of "Voodoo Moon" (November, Ruf Records) with this album showing good early sales, and reviews, to date.

The year 2012 sees Joe Whiting leaving the band late in the year.

The year 2013 likely brings a new album and the release of a live CD/DVD package recorded in Germany during May 2012.

So, from London’s Soho night clubs in 1966 to headlining the world’s most famous venues (Carnegie Hall, Fillmore’s East and West, Cobo Hall, etc.), you have Savoy Brown doing it all. The band continues to tour worldwide and they give a glimpse into the past, but also inspire new listeners with their personal brand of rocking boogie, blues and rock.

This album contains no booklet.