Plain and Fancy: 03/27/23

Monday, March 27, 2023

Melton Levy And The Dey Brothers - Melton Levy And The Dey Brothers (1972 us, strong blues country rock, Mike Bloomfield production, 2001 remaster)

Melton, Levy and the Dey Brothers' sole album has a bit of a come-down-from-the-reckless-heights-of-Haight-Ashbury vibe, but is a reasonably accomplished and pleasing record. It's got the characteristic San Francisco Bay Area blend of blues, country, rock, and good counterculture cheer, with a more laid-back, soul-influenced approach than Barry Melton had taken with his first band, Country Joe & the Fish. Everyone from the quartet contributes original material, with Melton, Rick Dey, and Jay Levy taking roughly equal shares of the writing credits.

It's easy to imagine this as suitable rustic rock to play on your escape from the big city of San Francisco to a more laid-back locale with similar progressive hippie ethos, but more space and less angst. A little bit of Melton's more radical past sneaks through on "Taxpayer's Lament," with its opening bursts of reverb guitar and anguished anti-war lyrics, in a vocal that falls between John Fogerty and Burton Cummings.

by Richie Unterberger