Dead Man by Josefus (1970)
They came out of Texas in the late 1960s playing a powerhouse blend of old-school R&B-based rock and prog rock, briefly picking up the mantle of fellow Texans, the 13th Floor Elevators. Pete Bailey had the proper grit to serve as a blues shouter and added some licks on the harmonica. Dave Mitchell could rip off searing guitar riffs, but Josefus's real locomotive came from the rhythm section of Ray Turner (bass) and Doug Till (drums).
They rip through solid rockers like “Crazy Man,” “Proposition,” and a strong cover of the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” before concluding with a bluesy, spacy, experimental jam – the 17-minute instrumental title track which allows Mitchell to run wild on guitar. Josefus had essentially broken up by the time Dead Man dropped, though they have reformed and played reunion shows several times in the decades since.
Growers of Mushrooms by Leaf Hound (1971)
Leaf Hound sounds an awful lot like Josefus, only with a British accent. Their bloodlines begin with the blues band Black Cat Bones, which would also help spawn Foghat, Free, and later, Bad Company. The heavier elements of Black Cat Bones spun off into Leaf Hound.
Vocalist Peter French and his cousin Mick Halls on guitar could play heavy blues rock almost as well as Led Zeppelin. In fact, their biggest failing may have been that across the board, they were just a tick behind Zeppelin. Halls weren’t as inventive as Jimmy Page, and Keith Goerge Young couldn’t get the explosion from his drum kit the way John Bonham could. But to say that you are almost as good as the greatest blues-based rock band of all time shouldn’t be a big detraction.
Songs like “Freelance Fiend,” “Stray,” and “Drowned My Life in Fear” with Stuart Brooks’ trippy bass underpinnings can hold their own with the best of any band. Much like Josefus, Leaf Hound was already on the way out when Growers of Mushrooms appeared on the scene, though they would also reform in the early 2000s, picking up right where they had left off more than thirty years earlier.