Savoy Brown - Ain't Done yet album Review

Savoy Brown – Ain’t Done Yet album review Chris High

It says a lot for a band when you’re on your forty-first album and still sound as fresh now as you did back in 1965 when you first started. Then again, Savoy Brown’s forty-first, Ain’t Done Yet deserves a lot saying about it. Starting with ‘Astounding’ and working through to ‘Zesty’ for adjectives to best describe this marvellous offering, there is not a single track that comes anywhere near disappointing.

The opening All Gone Wrong is the reason why the Blues is held in such high esteem. Gutsy, punch and delicious, the delivery of Kim Simmonds’ southern styled vocals and sublime guitar work is an absolute joy, underscored by Pat DeSalvo’s metronomic bass lines and Garnett Grimm’s powerhouse drums.

River on the Rise, smacks of old school heartbreak and despair, tinged with just enough hope to see the day through, whereas the title track – Ain’t Done Yet – is a toe-tapping, thigh slapping pleasure from first chord to last.

What really shines throughout is the absolute pleasure these three guys clearly derive from playing. There is nothing staid or dulled. Just a pure happiness and a requisite to share with their fans that self-same delight.

Feel Like A Gypsy slows things down a tad, with a soulful vibe that resonates, while as Jaguar Car get things stomping again with an aplomb that is stunning. The steel string opening to Rocking in Louisiana is almost heavenly and marks this as the track of the whole affair … but only on balance.

Ain’t Done Yet is an absolute master class in Blues playing, honed from a rock of fifty-five years of experience that keeps on maturing like fine, fine wine.

Track List