The Groundhogs - Muddy Waters Songbook

Year: 1999
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:11
Size: 111,7 MB
Styles: Electric blues, blues-rock
Scans: Full

1. Stuff You Gotta Watch (3:04)
2. She's Alright (3:33)
3. I Got A Rich Man's Woman (2:44)
4. Can't Call Her Sugar (3:00)
5. Forty Days And Forty Nights (2:00)
6. Mean Ole Frisco (2:56)
7. I'm Ready (2:43)
8. Young Fashioned Ways (3:36)
9. Hoochie Coochie Man (3:59)
10. I Feel So Good (2:57)
11. Mean Red Spider (2:35)
12. Tiger In Your Tank (3:36)
13. Mannish Boy (3:27)
14. Got My Mojo Workin' (4:36)
15. Country Blues (3:17)

The Groundhogs backed up blues legend John Lee Hooker, influenced everyone from Eric Clapton to punk pioneers The Damned, and gave rock one of its greatest guitar heroes in Tony McPhee. But outside of their hardy cult following, their name largely draws blank stares today.

Even if the band had never ventured beyond its blues-rock beginnings, they would still have been celebrated alongside the U.K.'s finest '60s blues bashers. But in a startling evolutionary leap that has The Beatles' rapid musical maturation for company, The Groundhogs went from covering American blues chestnuts to crafting a singular, sophisticated blend of psychedelia, prog, and hard rock for their most celebrated albums.

Through it all, singer/guitarist/songwriter Tony McPhee proved an astonishingly gifted axeman, the equal of anyone from Richard Thompson to Jeff Beck, with a seemingly endless supply of quirky, commanding tunes. Through a series of shifting lineups, McPhee led the band from its mid '60s inception all the way up through the 2010s.

Muddy Waters Songbook mc
Muddy Waters Songbook zippy

---

The Groundhogs - Hogs In Wolf's Clothing

Year: 1998
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:45
Size: 131,2 MB
Styles: Electric blues, blues-rock
Scans: Front, sleeve, tray

1. Smokestack Lightnin' (3:08)
2. Baby, How Long (2:39)
3. Commit A Crime (4:14)
4. Forty Four (4:11)
5. No Place To Go (4:17)
6. Ain't Superstitious (4:36)
7. Evil (3:52)
8. So Glad (2:14)
9. My Life (5:50)
10. Sittin' On Top Of The World (3:53)
11. Shake For Me (3:18)
12. Wang Dang Doodle (3:34)
13. How Many More Years (3:04)
14. Nature (4:01)
15. Down In The Bottom (3:46)

The history of the Groundhogs after their (relative) glory days of the 1970's is not well documented, nor indeed is their discography. Already confirmed as Tony McPhee plus a transient drummer and bass line up, they went from being a guitar blues band through an ever expanding keyboards based prog-ish band, and back again.

McPhee gradually lost interest in recording in the studio, preferring to restrict Groundhogs activity to the stage. The last album of original material appeared in the late 1980's, although various live albums have appeared since then. In 1998 however, McPhee did return to the studio to pay tribute to some of his influences. The title of the album is a reference to Howlin' Wolf, one of a handful of blues legends whose work is interpreted here, including Willie Dixon.

McPhee naturally strips things back again, restricting himself to guitar and vocals, devoid of keyboards. The songs are given McPhee's branding, while remaining melodically, reasonably faithful to the originals. Many, such as "Shake For Me" are invigorated substantially, McPhee's fine lead guitar elevating them from straight blues to guitar rock toe-tappers. A personal favourite is "Forty Four", which really gets down and dirty, the underlying guitar riff making things decidedly heavy.

By definition, there is nothing new or original here, although it is always a pleasure to hear Tony's take on the music he loves. This is really a rites of passage affair, but an enjoyable listen to boot. /Easy Livin

Hogs In Wolf's Clothing mc
Hogs In Wolf's Clothing zippy

---

The Groundhogs - Blues Obituary (50th Anniversary Edition)

Size: 95,5 MB
Time: 41:18
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2018
Styles: Blues Rock, British Blues
Art: Front

01. B.D.D. (3:44)
02. Daze Of The Weak (5:12)
03. Times (5:15)
04. Mistreated (4:00)
05. Express Man (3:55)
06. Natchez Burning (4:35)
07. Light Was The Day (6:52)
08. B.D.D. (Mono) (2:52)
09. Gasoline (4:49)

It’s an everyday story of love, loss and moving on, punctuated by a trip to the cemetery, a bloke with smelly feet who was just too big for his own coffin and the introduction of some Indian drums that signalled a long, spiralling journey to somewhere else – like a ‘60s sitcom that never got made – Joe Orton would have loved it.

By 1969, The Groundhogs had already had their day in the studio, scratching the surface with their debut album paying homage to the masters who’d written the old time blues songbook. It was time to, as Arthur Alexander might say, move on…

“I wanted to write my own songs. The blues was just too ‘restrictive’,” explained Tony McPhee.

So move on they did, at a pace. Even though the songs were based on the blues, The Groundhogs Darwinian slim to a three piece with McPhee on guitar, Pete Cruikshank on bass and Ken Pestulnik on drums made them tick yet louder, a crafted multi-layered jam that never quite set.

“In a three piece every little change that moves the sound around becomes huge. If anyone changes anything then you have to come up with something new to balance it out,” reckoned Ken Pestulnik.

According to Tony McPhee in Zig Zag’s John Tobler’s sleevenotes to the 1987 re-issue of ‘Blues Obituary’ it was the BBC’s John Peel producer John Walters that forced the band’s hand. “He decided he hated the blues,” McPhee told Tobler, “We figured it was time to get away from it.”

On its original release, the album itself received major plaudits, most notably there were claims that it was a “deep excursion” into “musical depths further down than Canned Heat ever dared go.” No Mean feat as the Heat were big news post-Woodstock. But while the Heat had the blues, the ‘hogs were sniffing out something different.

Inspired by a Yardbirds’ freak out on stage, and equipped with the sounds of seismic tub-thumping, The Groundhogs spiraled out of their safety net, any potential deals with devil were definitely off.

And to celebrate this rebirth they dressed as the clergy and forced a mate into a coffin in Highgate Cemetry to illustrate their departure for the sleeve – genius! They came to bury the past and fashion the future… soon to come was ‘Thanks Christ For The Bomb’, ‘Split’ and ‘Who Will Save The World?’.

‘Blues Obituary’ was step one and the re-issue also includes a mono-friendly single cut of ‘BDD’ (that’s blind, deaf and dumb old school, pop pickers) plus its original B-side ‘Gasoline’, an aching stripped down solo Tony TS McPhee track that also appeared on the blues compilation ‘I Asked For Water, She Gave Me Gasoline’ in 1969.

Blues Obituary MP3
Blues Obituary FLAC

---

Groundhogs - Scratching The Surface

Year: 1968/2006
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:04
Size: 96,7 MB
Styles: Electric blues, blues-rock
Scans: Full

1. Rocking Chair (4:13)
2. Early In The Morning (4:48)
3. Waking Blues (2:27)
4. Married Men (4:36)
5. No More Doggin' (4:53)
6. Man Trouble (6:25)
7. Come Back Baby (3:51)
8. You Don't Love Me (4:09)
9. Still A Fool (6:38)

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, Scratching the Surface 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 blues boom's hottest acts, Jethro Tull, and just how much they changed once a founding member (Mick Abrahams) departed.

Again, if you arrive at Scratching the Surface in search of a fresh "Cherry Red" or "Status People," you'll probably be disappointed. But if you want to hear the blues sluicing straight out of the Southern England Delta, there are precious few better introductions. /Dave Thompson, AllMusic

Scratching The Surface mc
Scratching The Surface zippy

---

Billy Boy Arnold, Tony McPhee & The Groundhogs - Chicago Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:08
Size: 135.4 MB
Styles: Chicago blues, Harmonica blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[2:44] 1. Riding The El
[4:22] 2. Mary Bernice
[3:48] 3. Just Got To Know
[3:13] 4. Just A Dream
[4:08] 5. It's Great To Be Rich
[3:08] 6. I Wish You Would
[2:03] 7. Eldorado Cadillac
[6:16] 8. Blues And Lonesome
[3:14] 9. Don't Stay Out All Night
[6:52] 10. Dirty Mother Fuyer
[4:18] 11. 1-2-99
[3:43] 12. Catfish
[4:24] 13. Sweet Miss Bea
[3:20] 14. Christmas Time
[3:28] 15. Ah'w Baby

Bass – Alan Fish; Drums – Wilgar Campbell; Guitar – Tony TS McPhee; Vocals, Harmonica – Billy Boy Arnold.

Born in Chicago rather than in Mississippi (as many of his musical forefathers were), young Arnold gravitated right to the source in 1948. He summoned up the courage to knock on the front door of his idol, harmonica great John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, who resided nearby. Sonny Boy kindly gave the lad a couple of harp lessons, but their relationship was quickly severed when Williamson was tragically murdered. Still in his teens, Arnold cut his debut 78 for the extremely obscure Cool logo in 1952. "Hello Stranger" went nowhere but gave him his nickname when its label unexpectedly read "Billy Boy Arnold."

Arnold made an auspicious connection when he joined forces with Bo Diddley and played on the shave-and-a-haircut beat specialist's two-sided 1955 debut smash "Bo Diddley"/"I'm a Man" for Checker. That led, in a roundabout way, to Billy Boy's signing with rival Vee-Jay Records (the harpist mistakenly believed Leonard Chess didn't like him). Arnold's "I Wish You Would," utilizing that familiar Bo Diddley beat, sold well and inspired a later famous cover by the Yardbirds. That renowned British blues-rock group also took a liking to another Arnold classic on Vee-Jay, "I Ain't Got You." Other Vee-Jay standouts by Arnold included "Prisoner's Plea" and "Rockinitis," but by 1958, his tenure at the label was over.

Other than an excellent Samuel Charters-produced 1963 album for Prestige, More Blues on the South Side, Arnold's profile diminished over the years in his hometown (though European audiences enjoyed him regularly) and he first ended up driving a bus in his hometown of Chicago, then working as a parole officer for the state of Illinois. Fortunately, that changed: Back Where I Belong restored this Chicago harp master to prominence, and Eldorado Cadillac drove him into the winner's circle a second time. After a six year lull between recordings, 2001's Boogie 'n' Shuffle on Stony Plain found Arnold still in fine form, backed by Duke Robillard and his band on a set of rough and ready blues.~ Bill Dahl

Chicago Blues mc
Chicago Blues zippy

---