Medicine Head (1971) There's Always A Light - LOST 70s GEMS

From the hard rocking sophomore album Heavy on the Drum, this is is exactly that, a departure from the sleepy folk balladry of Medicine Head' debut New Bottles Old Medicine which is very heavy. The pounding sparse kick drum and chunky but rudimentary blues rock guitar of John Fiddler to the wailing Harmonica of his partner Hope Evans, this Staffordshire duo know how to create sizeable rock from sparse elements. The highlight for me from this really tough sounding album is this track primarily due to Fiddler's electric vocals, definitely treated in some way to accentuate his natural low register tremelo that sounds like a blend of Dylan and Bolan or even Gerry Rafferty it was a trademark of early 70s rockers. It's a laidback warble taken from the blues and folk rock but acts with such majesty in its sprawling reverb that it acts as a harmony with his own guitar.

Medicine Head remain whimsical and laconic whilst bopping like only the heavy 50s blues rockers could; they were a nice counterpart to the excesses of Marc Bolan and T Rex, but had a country feel which put them closer to Stealers Wheel, it would be more evident on their other albums.