Shake Down

Shake Down, the debut album from the much-respected London-based Savoy Brown Blues Band, was originally released on Decca Records in September 1967. It was produced by the influential team of Mike Vernon and Gus Dudgeon.

This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1967 Decca UK stereo release and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl. Led by Kim Simmonds, Savoy Brown were one of the UK's most successful and exportable outfits.

Shake Down is viewed as one of the strongest and most respectful captures of the US blues they worshipped, bringing songs by Albert King, Willie Dixon and John Lee Hooker to eager UK purists.

Recorded in West Hampstead rather than Chicago, the 11 covers showcased the remarkably tight playing of the band, which had formed in Battersea two years earlier. Savoy Brown on this recording comprised Trinidad born Brice Portius on vocals (his only album with the group), Simmonds and Martin Stone trading blues licks on their guitars, underpinned by the rhythm section of Ray Chappell on bass and Leo Mannings on drums.

US critic Dave Marsh was to say that Shake Down was "as sympathetic a rendering of the blues as any English group has managed to lay down."