The Groundhogs
' debut album is a long way from the "classic" sound of the better-known
Thank Christ for the Bomb
/
Split
Who Will Save the World?
trilogy. Indeed, the mellow classic
blues
through which the band pursues its nine tracks offer the unsuspecting listener little more than a direct blast from the peak of the
British blues
boom past. Early
Fleetwood Mac
,
Chicken Shack
, and
Savoy Brown
all haunted precisely the same corridors as
Scratching the Surface
, with only the occasional burst of fuzzed
Tony McPhee
guitar to distinguish the sonics from the rest of the pack. That said,
ranks among the finest albums to emerge out of that entire period, a moody shuffle that includes an epic recounting of the Chicago classic
"Still a Fool"
and which matches five solid
McPhee
originals with a pair of blistering contributions from outgoing harmonica whiz
Steve Rye
. In fact, his
"Early in the Morning"
and
"You Don't Love Me"
might well be the album's best numbers, a discrepancy that puts one in mind of another of the
boom's hottest acts,
Jethro Tull
, and just how much they changed once a founding member (
Mick Abrahams
) departed. Again, if you arrive at
in search of a fresh
"Cherry Red"
or
"Status People,"
you'll probably be disappointed. But if you want to hear the
sluicing straight out of the Southern England Delta, there are precious few better introductions. ~ Dave Thompson