Iconic British blues rock guitarist Kim Simmonds rolled into the sedate central California coastal town of San Luis Obispo, with his seminal rock group Savoy Brown, to perform at the SLO Brew Company. The Brew House, is a gem of a venue, offering an upstairs restaurant and bar, and a downstairs live music room. The comfortable room features a solid soundstage, with a strong house PA and lighting system. With great acoustics, a bar offering up goodies like home brew IPA for five bucks a glass, and a casual seating arrangement, it is a perfect place to see a live band. The venue has brought a wealth of live pop music to the town since 1988, from nearly every musical genre. The patrons who showed up for the Thursday show were treated to an extraordinary display of blues music. Simmonds appeared to be in great spirits as he bantered with the crowd throughout the entire evening, punctuated by two complete sets containing nearly two and a half hours of pure blues rock.
Simmonds, now 68 years old has headed Savoy Brown for over fifty years and has personally released over 50 albums. It is hard to find many white English Blues guitar masters, who have continued to play relevant and timely music for so long. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, and John Mayall may be some of his only peers. The first Savoy Brown album, Shake Down, was released in 1967 and is credited with helping to spark the British Blues Boom with its innovative covers of songs by American blues masters Willie Dixon and John Lee Hooker. The band later released reworked covers, mixed with original songs, on classic albums including 1970’s Raw Sienna and Looking In and 1971’s Street Corner Talking.
At the SLO show Simmonds, along with veteran musicians, Garnet Grimm on drums and Pat DeSalvo on bass rocked the house. Lead singer and guitarist Simmonds showcased his immense range of guitar mastery throughout the night, combining new and old material flawlessly. He even played an occasional tune on the harmonica. Playing songs from the band’s most recent release 2014’s Goin’ to the Delta, to songs off the very first Savoy Brown album released in 1967 – Shakedown – the group covered five decades of material. According to some of the regular patrons at the bar, it may have been one of the best blues shows to ever shake the walls of the SLO Brew venue.
Early on Simmonds asked for a Diet Coke “Because his allergies were masking his voice raspy”. But he would only take it from the bartender. “I made that mistake a couple of times when we played with the Grateful Dead in the sixties”, he quipped, alluding to an LSD spike that he unwittingly received. Later he chatted at length. “Sometimes you get lost in the moment. It is like when you are driving a car and arrive at the market but you don’t remember driving there. It is the same with playing guitar. There are a lot of moments over the years that I don’t remember playing. Maybe after the show you could share with me some memories of Savoy Brown playing that I don’t have any memory of. But these days I like to be in the moment and tonight I want to give you and my guitar my full attention.”
Simmonds led the band in one of the longest jams of the night for their final song, featuring the hit tune from 1974 -“Hellbound Train.”After an extended ovation from the audience, the band returned to play one of their oldest tunes, “The Savoy Brown Boogie”. The crowd seemed to be mesmerized in the moment with Kim and his band mates at the SLO Brew Company, for the entire two and a half hours.
