SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

Formed in the early 1960s, The Groundhogs were first known as The Dollar Bills before Tony TS McPhee joined a short while later and proposed a name change. Named after a John Lee Hooker song, the band were also briefly called John Lee's Groundhogs when they backed the great bluesman on a tour.

McPhee quickly took control of the band, guiding them towards a blues style. They toured for several years, releasing the odd single, but it would be 1968 before this their first album appeared.

Very much of its time, 'Scratching the surface' has similarities with what Creedence Clearwater Revival ('Susie Q') were doing around the same time. Indeed, McPhee's lead guitar style is similar to that of John Fogerty. With a simple line up of vocals, lead guitar and harmonica, backed by bass and drums, the songs here are straightforward blues songs adapted for a rock environment. We have simple repeating verses, regular lead guitar intervals, and harmonica intermissions. The pace varies between foot tapping rockers and more traditional blues standard swaggering, but the music is unashamedly blues throughout.

Side two of the LP release has the two longest tracks, 'Man trouble' and 'Still a fool' both running to well over 6 minutes. The latter was released in edited form as a single (the single edit can be heard on the remastered album), but both tracks are simply slightly longer variants on the blues themes which prevail throughout the album.

Tony McPhee's talents as a singer are shown to be adequate here, and his guitar prowess unquestionable The title though was in retrospect more accurate than intended, this album doing nothing more than scratch at the surface of what the Groundhogs would go on to achieve.

For those, like myself, who find the blues to be a rewarding diversion, this is an album worthy of investigation. For those looking for the prog (or 'Prog related') side of the band, there will be little of interest here.

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