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Ric Burns is an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker and writer, best known for his eight-part, seventeen and a half hour series, New York: A Documentary Film, which premiered nationally on PBS to wide public and critical acclaim when broadcast in November 1999, September 2001, and September 2003.

Burns has been writing, directing and producing historical documentaries for over 25 years, since his collaboration on the PBS series The Civil War, (1990), which he produced with his brother Ken and co-wrote with Geoffrey C. Ward.  Since founding Steeplechase Films in 1989, he has directed some of the most distinguished programs for PBS including Coney Island (1991), The Donner Party (1992), The Way West (1995), Ansel Adams (2002), Eugene O’Neill, Andy Warhol (2006), We Shall Remain: Tecumseh’s Vision (2009), Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World (2010), and Death and the Civil War (2012), a film based on the best-selling book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by historian and Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust.

His work has won numerous film and television awards including six Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards,  two Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards,  three Writer’s Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing;  the Eric Barnouw Award of the Organization of American Historians, and the D.W. Griffith Award of the National Board of Review.

2015 saw the release of three more films by Burns.  American Ballet Theatre: a history, which aired on PBS as a part of the American Masters series, celebrates the rich history and legacy of America’s national ballet company. Debt of Honor: Disabled Veterans in American History, a moving tribute to the history of disabled veterans, aired nationally on PBS in November in honor of Veteran’s Day.  And The Pilgrims broadcast as part of the acclaimed American Experience series, also in November of 2015.  The film brings to life the story of the men and women of the Mayflower: both the ardently evangelical English Protestants who led the mission, as well as the less fervently evangelical “Strangers” who went with them.

Burns was educated at Columbia University and Cambridge University. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.

K  I  M    S  I  M  M  O  N  D  S 

BLUES/ROCK GUITAR LEGEND

FOR SAVOY BROWN 

ON THE RAY SHASHO SHOW

Anyone who witnessed Savoy Brown leave the blocks in 1965 would speak of a similar epiphany. Back then, the band were the spark that ignited the blues-boom, signing to Decca, opening for Cream’s first London show and boasting a lead guitarist who was being namedropped in the same reverential breath as peers like Clapton and Hendrix (with whom Simmonds jammed). Already, the guitarist was emerging as the band’s driving force. “I had a vision,” he reflects. “When I started the band back in 1965, the concept was to be a British version of a Chicago blues band. And the exciting thing now is that vision is still alive.” 

Soon, Savoy Brown had achieved what most British bands never did – success in America – and became a major US draw thanks to their high-energy material and tireless work ethic. “There’s far too much said about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” Simmonds told Classic Rock. “It’s a cliché. We were all extremely hard-working guys. When we came over to America, we were like a little army. I look at that time as being filled with incredible talent.”

Times changed, of course, and by 1979, Simmonds had moved from a London he no longer recognized – “The punks were everywhere!” – to settle permanently in New York. The Savoy Brown band members came and went, and the music scene shifted around him, but the guitarist stuck thrillingly to his guns and reaped the rewards, performing in iconic venues like Carnegie Hall and the Fillmore East and West, releasing thirty-odd albums, and later enjoying a well-deserved induction into Hollywood’s Rock Walk of Fame.

Even in the post-millennium, while his peers grow soft and drift into semi-retirement, Simmonds retains a vision and an edge, spitting out acclaimed albums that include 2011’s Voodoo Moon, 2014’s Goin’ To The Delta, 2015’s The Devil To Pay – and the emphatic new addition to Savoy Brown’s catalogue, Witchy Feelin’. “I'm amazed that I still have the energy inside me to play guitar, create music and write songs,” he considers. “I’ve been blessed in my life and I thank God for that. I’ve never been a believer in holding on to the past – I don’t look over my shoulder and congratulate myself. I always want to climb the next mountain – and I’m very pleased with this new album…”

You can purchase Witchy Feelin' the new album by Kim Simmons and Savoy Brown at Amazon.com.

For more information and concert dates for Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown visit … www.savoybrown.com

Also visit Savoy Brown on Facebook at … www.facebook.com/SavoyBrown65/timeline

And on Twitter at https://twitter.com/savoy_brown