Derrick Dove & the Peacekeepers: Burn it Down Review
Derrick Dove & the Peacekeepers started 2025 with a bang. The ‘southern fried blues rock’ outfit from Tifton, GA released their third album Burn it Down on January 23rd via Blue Voodoo Records. This record comes as a follow-up to the 2023 release Rough Time which topped the Blues Album charts in the US and Spain. This 10-track delight has been both written and produced by the band.
The title track starts off strong with a guitar and bass playing a catchy pentatonic riff in unison. The heavy shuffle keeps pumping more and more energy into an already fiery track. This is a punch in the face right from the start – and that is what blues rock is all about! Following on is a funky and cheeky “Georgia Peach” featuring a mean guitar solo and some wonderful ivories tickling. A juicy drum fill then starts off “Comeback Kinda Love”. Seems that the band drew some inspiration from the classic BB King / Clapton Riding With the King collab on this one.
Released as a single in 2024, “Soul Revival” is an anthemic rock and roll banger with some amazing guitar work, embedding the feel-good factor into the listener in preparation for a soulful, heartbreak ballad that is “Just Walk Away”. The journey continues with “One Step Behind” – another killer southern rock track, that sounds like a nod to Warren Haynes’ work. “Can’t Move On” is the album’s second ballad. The song starts off with contrasting guitars: a warm drive on the lead guitar on one and a crisp acoustic on the other side. The song builds on the acoustic guitar riff eventually culminating with heavily distorted guitars and an open-hats drum beat.
“Queen of Broken Hearts” is a dirty slow blues number that sets a late night dim light vibe. This scene then gives way to a driving, upbeat bass guitar riff leading the way into “Time to Pay Up”, before the album is wrapped with “Life is a Vicious Circle” – a happy, summery rock n’ roll tune built on top of a solid AC/DC-style beat.
Derrick Dove & the Peacekeepers are putting in great effort in keeping the true no-nonsense blues rock alive. Judging by the start of it, with the release of Burn it Down, 2025 sure promises to be a great year for the band and the blues rock fans alike, who will surely be eager to find out what’s the future got in store for this Georgia-based powerhouse.
The Review: 8/10
Can’t Miss Tracks
– Burn it Down
– Georgia Peach
– One Step Behind
– Queen of Broken Hearts
The Big Hit
– One Step Behind