Groundhog Day

The Groundhogs, if you are unfamilair, were the domain of wonderful blues guitarist TS McPhee, and released several really good albums mostly in the early 1970's, however a quick Google search reveals to me the somewhat surprising information that they are more or less still active, at least McPhee continues to perform with various other musicians.

Surprisingly, I cannot seem to find their debut "Scratchin the Surface" (I'm sure it's around here somewhere), but I think they hit stride, anyway, with the albums that followed, "Thank Christ For the Bomb" and "Split", bith crammed full of great psycho-blues wailings, period pieces for certain but nonetheless great stuff...they supported the Rolling Stones on the Stones 1971 tour, and followed that up (in 1972) with "Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs!", which is somewhat puzzlingly their best known album, I say "puzzlingly" because frankly, I don't think it's very good and have not included it here, at least not on par with these two excellent albums.....after "Save the World", they cranked out album after album of the same solid, hard rocking psychedelic blues that rocked the earlier efforts, sometimes with shifting personel but always centered around McPhee's distinctive blues wail playing..."Hogwash" (1973) , "Solid" (1974), "Crosscut Saw" and "Black Diamond" (both 1976) are all worthy efforts that any fan of blues/metal should hear. All come highly recommended by the ultimate authority on these things, myself.

This band was far more successful in Europe than here in the States, I know of many of my fellow countrymen who are unaware of their legacy, so for me to add "rarities" might be something of a contradiction for some, but I do have a couple worth noting. First we have McPhee's pre-Groundhogs effort, Herbal Mixture, and "Please Leave My Mind".....the album is wonderfully dated, a fine period piece of the mid 1960's and a collection of tracks that certainly plant the seeds of McPhee's later work. Also here a good collection of BBC recordings from 1970-72, aptly titled "Groundhogs On Air BBC 1970-721970-72, quite aptly titled "Groundhogs on970-72, aptly named "Groundhogs-on Air BBC 1970-72" ....I have no

idea what McPhee's more recent work sounds like, but I have a pretty good idea.....he's one of those rock guitarists like Wayne Kramer, Tony Iommi, Buck Dharma, Johnny Ramone and a very few others who are in general HIGHLY identifiable almost every time out.

These are fine albums and I recommend them highly. I'll start the uploads soon and hopefully I'll have the links up by tomorrow. Of course, they are for informational purposes only, should you enjoy them I would hope that you would delete them from your computer and purchase them legitmately, as I myself have done.....but here's to the Groundhogs, a largely forgotten heavyweight of that greatest of eras, the early-mid 1970's.

THANK CHRIST FOR THE BOMB-01 Strange Town/02 Darkness is no Friend/03 Soldier/04 Thank Christ For the Bomb/06 Ship on the Ocean/07 Garden/08 Status People/09 Rich man Poor Man/10 Eccentric Man

SPLIT-01 Split Part 1/02 Split Part 2/03 Split Part 3/04 Split Part 4/05 Cherry Red/06 A Year in the Life/07 Junkman/08 Groundhog

SOLID-01 Light My Light/02 Free From All Alarm/03 Sins of the Father/04 Sad Go Round/05 Corn Cob/06 Plea Song/07 Snow Storm/08 Joker's Grave/09 Over Blue

HOGWASH-01 I LOve You Miss Ogyny/You Had a Lesson/02 Ringmaster/03 3744 James Road/04 Sad is the Hunter/05 S'one Song/06 Earth Shanty/07 Mr. Hooker, Dear John/08 Rolling and Tumbling/09 Death Letter/10 Me and the Devil Blues/11 No More Doggin'

CROSSCUT SAW-01 Crosscut Saw/02 Promiscuity/03 Boogie Withus/04 Fulfilment/05 Live a Little Lady/06 Three Way Split/07 Mean Mistreater/08 Eleventh Hour

BLACK DIAMOND-01 Body Talk/02 Fantasy Partner/03 Live Right/04 Country Blues/05 Your Love Keeps Me ALive/06 Friendzy/07 Pastoral Future/08 Black Diamond

PLEASE LEAVE MY MIND-01 Rock Me baby/02 Shake It/03 Someone to love/04 Hallelujah/05 I'll Never Fall In Love Again/06 Over You baby/07 Please Leave My mind/08 Love That Died/09 Somethings Happening/10 Tailor made/11 Over You baby/12 Machines/13 Please Leave My mind Take 2/14 Tailor made Take 2/15 Love That Died Take 2/16 Love That Died Take 3

ON AIR BBC 1970-72 01 Garden/02 Eccentric Man/03 Split Part 1/04 Split Part 2/05 Mistreated/06 I Love You Misogyny-You Had a Lesson/07 Earth Shanty/08 3744 James Road/09 Sad is the Hunter/10 Split Part 4/Cherry Red