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Long known as the mastermind behind the legendary British blues rock band Savoy Brown, Kim Simmonds is acknowledged as “one of England’s finest bluesmen” by Guitar Player magazine. Discoveries magazine also writes that “blues and rock are in his veins.” Born in the UK in 1947 in the small mining town of Newbridge, Wales, he learned to play guitar at the tender age of 13 by sending away for a mail order guitar that arrived disassembled.
By his teens in the mid 1960s, he formed Savoy Brown in Soho, London, and established himself amongst the hierarchy of white British blues guitarists that included Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, and Peter Green. The British blues movement, of which Simmonds was a major part, exported blues music back to the USA, invigorating the art form as well as bringing attention to many forgotten blues musicians. Many of his recordings throughout the 1960s and 1970s placed in Billboard’s Top 100, making his group one of the few blues bands to penetrate the pop charts.
Forty years later, Kim Simmonds continues to grow artistically. On his new CD, Struck By Lightning, Kim regales us with a glorious combination of acoustic blues, jazz and folk: an altogether brilliant journey through American music forms. While Savoy Brown is his vehicle to play electric blues and rock, his solo forays have always been all acoustic. “My solo work is more of a blues-folk thing. It’s the other side of me. But it’s the same music in a different guise. Whether it’s electric or acoustic the biggest challenge I find is staying true to one’s self,” he says.
From his early days of playing the late night clubs of London through the grand scale of headlining the world’s biggest stages, Kim has stayed the course and continues to be a true “stick to his guns” artist—still on tour, still playing the blues, inspiring awe and respect from all who see him play.
