Upcoming 2009 GIG(S):

January 24, 2009 - Saturday, 9:30 p.m. - San Francisco, Calif., Saloon - 1232 Grant St. - (415) 989-7666 - w/ Peter Albin (Big Brother), Banana (Youngbloods, Zero) and Roy Blumenfeld (Blues Project)

March 8, 2009 - Sunday, 7:30 p.m. - Phoenix, Arizona The Rhythm Room - 1019 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85014 - (602)265-4842 - w/ my dear friend, Harold Aceves and his Tempe irregulars

Coming...East Coast dates at the end of May and England in July!

Check back frequently for future live performance calendar.

Bob Zellner, me and Lee Weiner at The Nation Magazine, New York, NY, February 5, 2007
for the kick-off press conference of Generation on Fire - check out the New York Times article

If you can't make it to one of these live performances, you can grab a set for yourself by listening to one of my 50 downloadable performances over the past 20 years that are now available at archive.org that include both recent performances and a number of vintage performances with Joe McDonald, John Cipollina, Dinosaurs, Henry Kaiser and others (I hope you like 'em). Plus, you can get a few recent musical jaunts on video on youtube.com or a 2006 performance in Mill Valley, captured on Marin County's "Bandlands." And if you're a history buff, you can also see me sing somewhere in Tiburon, California in approx. 1970, or you can also see me sing live at Woodstock in 1969.

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"According to the fabled Rough guide to Rock, Country Joe & The Fish "formed in Berkley, California, 1965" and made "substantial contributions to the halcyon days of psychedelic music". The very same Barry "The Fish" Melton graced Northampton with this intimate gig, taking to the hot seat only after Joe Woolley set the scene with his always delightfully affecting yet unaffected acoustic ditties.

While the rickety old Labour Club holds no more history for some than a few Friday night drinking excursions, Barry Melton is enamoured with its links to a labour movement arguably long forgotten. When they weren't fighting for workers' rights his parents introduced him to the wistful, witty and inspiring folk songs of the early 1930s American labour movement, mirrored in the union posters on the walls of Northampton's own Labour Club.

Turns out that like a fine wine you've never heard of but you know you're going to enjoy, Barry Melton is rich and satisfying in the drinking. Far from stuck in a 1960s time warp, he recalls Woodstock psychedelia with the wry humour of a man who knows that getting wasted and writing songs about hamburgers falling in love with hotdogs is a novelty that just won't last.

Still, he doesn't regret one moment of it, and neither do we as his awesome, and at times ridiculous, gravelly blues and traditional union chants float into the night air, reminding Northampton that there's a vintage you can't buy on Camden High Street. And The Fish has it, down to a T."

Natasha House, Northampton Chronicle & Echo, Fri 5th August 2005

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Poster for Festival Hippie - à St. Jean d’Angély (17) Charente Maritime, France - 22 juillet 2005

2003 - 2008 PAST APPEARANCES - Click this link to see a list of past appearances 2003 - 2008

Booking contacts (click link to send email):

USA: Steve Keyser

Tel.: (US) 1-415-499-8284

UK/International: Mike Cole

Tel.: (UK) 07896113487; (Int'l) + 44 + 7896113487

Or email me or write to me at PO Box 72505, Davis, CA 95617 USA

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Hello, my name is Barry Melton. Welcome to my home page, where you will find a number of links related to my past, my present, my friends and my interests.

In 1965, I co-founded the musical group Country Joe and the Fish, and began my career as a guitarist and singer, recording and touring with "Country Joe" McDonald as a duo and with various bands, with my own bands and as a solo artist under the name Barry "The Fish" Melton.

In 1982, I was admitted to practice law before all courts of the State of California and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. I have subsequently been admitted to practice before most other U.S. District Courts in California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. I am certified as a specialist in criminal law by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California. I've served as a Deputy State Public Defender with the Office of the State Public Defender for the State of California, and I'm presently serving as Public Defender of Yolo County, California. I am a past President of the California Public Defenders Association [CPDA].

I have continued to play music during the course of my legal career, including a long stint with Dinosaurs, a band of 60s veterans that has at various times included Peter Albin and David Getz ( Big Brother and the Holding Company), John Cipollina and Greg Elmore (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Papa John Creech (Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship), Spencer Dryden (Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage), Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead lyricist), David LaFlamme (It's a Beautiful Day), Jerry Miller (Moby Grape) and the incomparable Merl Saunders on keyboards. 

I currently make my home in Davis, California, with my wife, Barbara Langer, who is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). Our youngest son, Kyle, is living in the Bay Area and plays banjo and guitar. Our oldest son, Kingsley, lives in Davis also. After graduating U.C. Davis, Kingsley also worked near Colima, Mexico with Rotary Project Amigo. There was a serious earthquake there in January 2003 and Project Amigo could use your help for Earthquake Relief. You can also check out Kingsley's website.

If you'd like to read a more objective view of what I'm doing now, check out this article that was printed in the Sacramento Bee, or check out this recent interview by Rip Rense in the Rip Post.

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T-Shirt Design

Yes, you can own your very own EuropeTour 2005 T-Shirt. Different colors are available. My friends in France also have posters available from my recent 2005 European tour. Just click on this link to order a shirt or poster (from France). If you buy either a T-Shirt or Poster and send it to me with a prepaid return envelope (or tube), I'd be happy to sign and return it (P.O. Box 72505, Davis, California, USA).

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SOME CURRENTLY AVAILABLE CD'S

"Dual in the Desert"Taxim Records of Germany has a Summer 2007 release of the recently recorded, straight-up, hard-driving album I did with Rich Hopkins. The album features the incomparable drumming of Tom Larkins, long-time drummer with Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, and Tucson's own Nick Augustine on bass. The album is really a guitar "shoot-out," and recorded in Tucson, Arizona, which is why "Dual in the Desert" is an apt description. The album is just out, so for now, the only place I know you can get it is Taxim Records.

"The John Fahey Tribute Album" Released December 2006! This is "The Revenge of Blind Joe Death," a John Fahey tribute album, and I appear on one cut of the album - "Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Phillip XIV of Spain." I'm a part of "Canned Fish," a band that includes me, Fito de la Parra and Larry "The Mole" Taylor of Canned Heat (drums and bass), Phil Kellog and Henry Kaiser (guitars) and Mark Hummell (harmonica). You can get the album from amazon.com or other Internet music outlets.

John Fahey was an important and innovative guitarist, and he was a founder of Takoma Records. The original manager of Country Joe and the Fish, ED Denson, also managed John Fahey and ran Takoma Records with John (both of them were from Takoma Park, Maryland). Fahey and Denson also helped bring such artists as Furry Lewis, Skip James, Bukka White, Son House, and Mississippi John Hurt back into the public eye in the early 1960's after making many trips to the South on music research trips, locating these great bluesmen and bringing them before folk music audiences in the North. My share of the royalties on this record are being donated to Music Cares, a charitable organization that provides assistance to musicians in need.

Dinosaurs - "Friends of Extinction"Evangeline Records has released what's sure to become a Dinosaurs classic, "Friends of Extinction." I spent most of the 80's working in this all-San Francisco band, and this double-CD features all the great Dinosaurs lineups including Peter Albin, John Cipollina, Papa John Creech, Spencer Dryden, Robert Hunter, Merl Saunders and me. One of the CDs is all never-before released live material and it features such guest artists as Stu Blank, Greg Elmore, Robbie Hoddinott, Doug Killmer and Kathi McDonald. The other CD includes the original Dinosaurs studio album + bonus cuts. The double-CD album is available directly through Evangeline Records, or even try Amazon.com.

The Saloon Years"The Saloon Years" is a release featuring a selection of songs recorded with various versions of my band between 1982 and 1994. All of the cuts on the album were recorded at The Saloon, one of San Francisco's oldest nightspots. The Saloon traces its history from the mid-19th-century days of the Barbary Coast, survived the '06 and '89 quakes, and stands today as a North Beach landmark. The album features my friends Peter Albin (bass [see above]), John Cipollina (guitar [see above]), Spencer Dryden and David Getz (Drums [see above]), and guitarists Bob Flurie (HooDoo Rhythm Devils) and Peter Walsh (Seatrain and the Commander Cody Band). The band was always billed as the Barry "the Fish" Melton Band, but in more recent years, I've come to think of the band as Middle-Aged Men With Musical Instruments. We had a big record release party at The Saloon, 1232 Grant St., San Francisco, on July 25th and 26th, 1997. You can get further details and order a copy of the CD from Steve Keyser, or, if you're in the UK or the EU, order a copy from Mike Cole. Mike has a good stock of "The Saloon Years" and can get folks in the UK and EU a CD at far less than ordinary domestic prices. For my other records, such as Songs of the Next Great Depression, Bright Sun is Shining, Melton, Levy and the Dey Brothers, and the new Dinosaurs CD, try Amazon.com.

"Melton, Levy and the Dey Brothers" Evangeline Records also did a 2002 release of the "Melton, Levy & the Dey Brothers" album I recorded for Columbia Records in the early 70's. The CD is also available through Evangeline Records, or amazon.com. The album was co-produced by the late, great and incomparable blues guitarist, Michael Bloomfield, and features a duet with the both of us and many other fine performances by brothers Rick and Tony Dey (bass and drums, respectively), together with Jay Levy on keyboards. The album was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios in San Francisco and Los Angeles, has some really fine production values, and it features several of my songs along with some Rick Dey classics that should not be lost in the march of time.

Bright Sun is Shining

"Bright Sun is Shining" Every kid has a dream. This is an album I began recording in January 1969, when I was 21 years old. Half of it is recorded in Chicago, with much of what was then the core of young bluesmen in town at the time: Morris Jennings on drums, who recorded with Howlin' Wolf that year; Donny Hathaway, who later became known for his spectacular work with Roberta Flack was then working with the Staples Singers (and, in fact, Pop Staples visited the studio during the sessions); Phil Upchurch, who was then the Chess House Band guitarist and was recording with Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, joined the session as a bass player; and Chess regular Gerald Sims, who was a fixture of the early Chicago soul sound as a member of the Daylighters and whose dozens of recordings included work with Little Milton, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Mary Wells. Gerald Sims later purchased the Chess studios in Chicago and produced records in that location for a number of years. The other half of the album includes sould music covers recorded in New York with members of the Wilson Pickett Band and the immortal Count Basie trumpet player, Joe Newman. All-in-all, this record was my 21-year-old fantasy come to life, recording some of my favorite blues and soul tunes of the era. It's recently been re-released by Comet Records, Vanguard Records' Italian affilliate and is likewise available through various Internet album sources.

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1974

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2003

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1999 Summer Concert in Davis
l-r: Roy Blumenfeld, Barry Melton, Stu Blank, Peter Albin

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March 2001 in Fairfax, California
l-r: Banana, Peter Albin, Barry Melton, Roy Blumenfeld

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September 2002 in Moscow, Russia
w/ Sergei Voronov (3rd from right) and his band Crossroadz including American guitarist Bill Scholer (2nd from left)

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Poster for Paris date, July 29, 2004

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Some Links About Me:

Brooklyn claims me as a native son (but I left at an early age)

I share common ancestry with George Washington, many original colonists of Virginia, and a host of Confederate soldiars. I have a website devoted to my paternal ancestry: Click here if you'd like to check out some of my paternal ancestral line (I wish I could trace my maternal line, but I can't)

Or Click here if you're doing geneological research on the Coker or Melton families of East Texas

I moved to Van Nuys, California, graduating from U.S. Grant High School at age 17

I then went to San Francisco, where I'm in The Who's Who of the Haight-Ashbury Era

And a Chronology of San Francisco Rock by the Museum of the City of San Francisco

Some of my discography is in the All Music Guide--some albums are still available

Some of my filmography is in the All Movie Guide

Martindale-Hubbell currently lists me in Woodland, California

My songs can be searched under my name ("Barry Melton") at BMI

I'm in The Annotated Mickey Hart Discography, and check out Mickey's homepage

You can also find me in The Annotated Robert Hunter Discography

I wrote an essay for inclusion in Long Time Gone: 60s America Then and Now, edited by my friend Alex Bloom. The book includes essays by Julian Bond and other notables of the 60s

And don't forget Country Joe and The Fish - The Website 

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Some of my favorite musical sites:

Robert Altman's Photo Gallery

Big Brother & the Holding Company

CDnow! The Internet Music Store

The John Cipollina Web Site

Crossroadz - The fabulous Russian band with whom I had the great honor to share the stage

The Reverend Gary Davis Web Site - Check out the story about me & the Rev

Iris Dement - in my opinion, the finest American singer-songwriter in a generation

SPENCER DRYDEN - 1938-2005 - please visit Jeff Tamarkin's website and and hear Spencer Dryden speak about Bill Graham

Early Blues Website

Ramblin' Jack Elliot - Still a wonder to behold!

The Family Dog

The Folk Project of Northern New Jersey

The Mickey Hart Homepage

Il Popolo de Blues - Ernesto De Pescale's web newsletter, in English and Italian, about the Italian Blues scene

The Jefferson Airplane, Family & Starship Homepages

The David LaFlamme (It's a Beautiful Day) Homepage

Country Joe McDonald's Homepage

Mudcat Cafe Folk Song Search - Search "DT" for the words to the folksong of your choice

Music Resources on the Internet

Jim Page, Seattle folksinger

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame + Museum

Rockument

Tom Russell - once gave me a copy of his CD, The Man From God Knows Where (It's great!)

Merl Saunders

Shady Grove - The Quicksilver Messenger Service Page

Technicolor Web of Sound - A 60s web radio station - tune in!!!

They Came to Play

- Garret Mathews compilation of stories (including one of mine) from the early days of rock

The Ultimate Band List

Some of my favorite legal sites:

California Attorneys for Criminal Justice

California Codes, etc.

California Public Defenders Association - I'm on the Board of Directors

California Supreme & Appellate Court Opinions for the last 60 days

California Education Law Report

Criminal Justice Page (FSU)

Federal Judicial Center Homepage has valuable free publications

Virtual Law Offices of Lawrence E. Feldman & Assoc.

Galaxy legal page

Wilbur Haines

- A great lawyer & a good friend, we worked together on the Manny Babbit clemency campaign

Kim Kruglick --Marin's late and very brilliant criminal defense attorney had an invaluable website that still carries on!

Legal Information Institute (Cornell)

Marin County Public Defender does work similar to the work I do.

The Rights Organization maintained by my old friend ED Denson

Jerome P. Mullins' "Three Strikes" Page

The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Law

Yahoo - Government:Law 

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Document Library Legal Dictionary Legal News FindLaw Legal Web Sites All Web Sites US Government Sites US Supreme Court US Constitution

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