Popping the Blues
Savoy Brown bopped back into Detroit, home of their greatest successes, sans lead singer Chris Youlden and with a new, back-to-the-blues format that lead guitarist Kim Simmonds described as “mellowed out.” Youlden left, according to Simmonds, because “he’s a songwriter, a beautiful songwriter and he needs a band to play his songs.
Popping the Blues
Savoy Brown bopped back into Detroit, home of their greatest successes, sans lead singer Chris Youlden and with a new, back-to-the-blues format that lead guitarist Kim Simmonds described as “mellowed out.”
Youlden left, according to Simmonds, because “he’s a songwriter, a beautiful songwriter and he needs a band to play his songs. He left us with a group that’s a lot more improved, and one that’s got a lot more freedom.” Receptions are about equal, Simmonds said of their British experience, but apparently there’s a tad of concern about the response the crew will receive in Amerika.
For the group, it’s a new Amerikan experience — in Britain they had performed as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, and done at least one killer all-blues album {Shake Down) though that record had never been released over here, perhaps because the group got better mileage out of the pretentious pop material they’d been presenting with Youlden. At any rate, only Simmonds is left from the band that did Shake Down, a record said to be heavily influential on the British blues scene a few years back.