Barry Melton - We Are Like The Ocean 1978

Barry "The Fish" Melton (born June 14, 1947) is the co-founder and original lead guitarist of Country Joe and the Fish and The Dinosaurs. He appears on all the Country Joe and the Fish recordings and he also wrote some of the songs that the band recorded. He appeared in the films made at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, and also appeared as an outlaw in the neo-Western film, Zachariah, and other films in which Country Joe and the Fish appear. An attorney and member of the State Bar of California, Melton has maintained a criminal defense practice since 1982.

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Barry Melton - Bright Sun in Shining 1970

Guitarist Barry Melton entered music in his teens, in San Francisco, as a member of the Instant Action Jug Band, which was where he met Country Joe McDonald, a singer and guitar player who was also putting out an underground newspaper called Rag Baby. The two worked together on some of McDonald's recordings in support of his political journal, and out of that linkup, they decided to form a band -- the resulting group was christened Country Joe & the Fish. Melton's lead guitar -- a searing psychedelic assault on the strings -- was as essential a part of the group's three classic albums as McDonald's voice. Amid numerous personnel changes, especially after the third album, Together, Melton and McDonald formed the stable core of the band, which lasted into the late '60s. Melton held the group together after McDonald withdrew from full-time work with the group to get married, and he brought ex-Big Brother & the Holding Company members Peter Albin and David Getz aboard when they were left high and dry after Janis Joplin's split with the band. Working as Barry "The Fish" Melton, he continued as a solo act through the 1970s and into the 1980s, also fronting the Barry "The Fish" Melton Band. Melton has also been a practicing attorney since the early '80s; in more recent years, that career has apparently prevented Melton from participating in music as often as his former bandmates. AMG.

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Barry Melton, Levy & Dey Brothers - Melton, Levy & Dey Brothers 1972

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, if an unassuming one. 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. Some of the more keyboard-oriented tracks sound a little like Paul McCartney's early solo work, as unlikely as that comparison might seem; check the chorus of Jay Levy's "Been So Fine" for an illustration. It's easy to imagine this as suitable rustic rock to play on your escape from the big bad city of San Francisco to a more laid-back locale with similar progressive hippie ethos, but more space and less angst, even if that journey would probably go no further than Marin County. 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. AMG.

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Barry Melton - We Are Like The Ocean 1978

Guitarist Barry Melton entered music in his teens, in San Francisco, as a member of the Instant Action Jug Band, which was where he met Country Joe McDonald, a singer and guitar player who was also putting out an underground newspaper called Rag Baby. The two worked together on some of McDonald's recordings in support of his political journal, and out of that linkup they decided to form a band -- the resulting group was christened Country Joe & the Fish. Melton's lead guitar -- a searing psychedelic assault on the strings -- was as essential a part of the group's three classic albums asMcDonald's voice. Amid numerous personnel changes, especially after the third album, Together,Melton and McDonald formed the stable core of the band, which lasted into the late '60s. Melton held the group together after McDonald withdrew from full-time work with the group to get married, and he brought ex-Big Brother & the Holding Company members Peter Albin and David Getz aboard when they were left high and dry after Janis Joplin's split with the band. Working as Barry "The Fish" Melton, he continued as a solo act through the 1970s and into the 1980s, also fronting the Barry "The Fish" Melton Band. Melton has also been a practicing attorney since the early '80s; in more recent years, that career has apparently prevented Melton from participating in music as often as his former bandmates. AMG.

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Barry Melton - Songs Of The Next Great Depression 1981

Guitarist Barry Melton entered music in his teens, in San Francisco, as a member of the Instant Action Jug Band, which was where he met Country Joe McDonald, a singer and guitar player who was also putting out an underground newspaper called Rag Baby. The two worked together on some ofMcDonald's recordings in support of his political journal, and out of that linkup they decided to form a band -- the resulting group was christened Country Joe & the Fish. Melton's lead guitar -- a searing psychedelic assault on the strings -- was as essential a part of the group's three classic albums asMcDonald's voice. Amid numerous personnel changes, especially after the third album, Together,Melton and McDonald formed the stable core of the band, which lasted into the late '60s. Melton held the group together after McDonald withdrew from full-time work with the group to get married, and he brought ex-Big Brother & the Holding Company members Peter Albin and David Getz aboard when they were left high and dry after Janis Joplin's split with the band. Working as Barry "The Fish" Melton, he continued as a solo act through the 1970s and into the 1980s, also fronting the Barry "The Fish" Melton Band. Melton has also been a practicing attorney since the early '80s; in more recent years, that career has apparently prevented Melton from participating in music as often as his former bandmates. AMG.

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