Raw Sienna
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Album Summary
Raw Sienna landed in 1970 on the Deram label, and honey, this was not Savoy Brown's debut — by this point, Kim Simmonds and his crew had already been woodshedding their craft through several prior releases, and Raw Sienna represented a leaner, meaner, more focused chapter in their story. Recorded with an ear toward capturing the sweat and sawdust of their live show, the album stripped everything back to the bone — no frills, no studio trickery, just the raw, aching truth of the blues. With Simmonds steering the ship as the band's creative and guitar engine, Raw Sienna drew deep from the well of American Delta and Chicago blues tradition, filtered through the gritty sensibility of the British blues revival that was burning hot on both sides of the Atlantic at the dawn of the new decade.
Reception
- Raw Sienna earned Savoy Brown serious credibility among blues purists and rock critics alike, who recognized the band's uncommon commitment to authenticity in an era increasingly drawn toward progressive excess.
- The album cultivated a devoted cult following in the United Kingdom, cementing the band's reputation as one of the most fiercely genuine acts on the British blues circuit.
- Stateside, Raw Sienna helped build Savoy Brown a loyal American audience hungry for the kind of unvarnished, soulful blues rock that the band delivered with such conviction.
Significance
- Raw Sienna stands as a proud artifact of the British blues boom, embodying the deep reverence that a generation of UK musicians held for the American blues masters who came before them — and their determination to carry that torch forward.
- Kim Simmonds' guitar work throughout this album is a masterclass in restraint and raw feeling, proving that soul and technique are not enemies but partners, and placing Savoy Brown firmly in the lineage of the great blues-rock guitar voices.
- Tracks like 'Needle And Spoon' and 'When I Was A Young Boy' reveal a band unafraid to sit inside the darkness and weight of the blues tradition, giving Raw Sienna a emotional gravity that set it apart from the harder, more theatrical rock records of its era.
Tracklist
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A1 A Hard Way To Go 133
2:17
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A2 That Same Feelin' 123
3:36
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A3 Master Hare 93
4:45
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A4 Needle And Spoon 149
3:18
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A5 A Little More Wine 86
4:51
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B1 I'm Crying 125
4:17
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B2 Stay While The Night Is Young 100
3:07
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B3 Is That So 179
7:40
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B4 When I Was A Young Boy 171
3:02
Artist Details
Savoy Brown is one of the most soulful, road-worn blues rock outfits to ever come rolling out of London, England, forming back in 1965 under the steady hand of guitarist Kim Simmonds, who kept that band burning long after most of his bandmates moved on to greener pastures — and man, did they move on, with founding members spinning off to form Foghat and other acts that rocked the decade hard. Their thick, swampy sound drew deep from the well of American blues and poured it through a distinctly British filter, putting out classics like *Hellbound Train* and carving out a loyal following on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the late '60s and into the '70s. Savoy Brown never quite grabbed the brass ring of mainstream superstardom, but for the true believers — the ones who knew where the real fire lived — they were an essential piece of the blues rock foundation that held up so much of what came after them.
