Barry Melton

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 <a href="spotify:artist:4fsh5BPGWt8oGFUwQ6msCk">Country Joe McDonald</a>, a singer and guitar player who was also putting out an underground newspaper called Rag Baby. The two worked together on some of <a href="spotify:artist:4fsh5BPGWt8oGFUwQ6msCk">McDonald</a>'s recordings in support of his political journal, and out of that linkup they decided to form a band -- the resulting group was christened <a href="spotify:artist:0a63dfrxBQKqh160P8iUNL">Country Joe & the Fish</a>. Melton's lead guitar -- a searing psychedelic assault on the strings -- was as essential a part of the group's three classic albums as <a href="spotify:artist:4fsh5BPGWt8oGFUwQ6msCk">McDonald</a>'s voice. Amid numerous personnel changes, especially after the third album, Together, Melton and <a href="spotify:artist:4fsh5BPGWt8oGFUwQ6msCk">McDonald</a> formed the stable core of the band, which lasted into the late '60s. Melton held the group together after <a href="spotify:artist:4fsh5BPGWt8oGFUwQ6msCk">McDonald</a> withdrew from full-time work with the group to get married, and he brought ex-<a href="spotify:artist:4J69yWrKwWJgjv3DKTZcGo">Big Brother & the Holding Company</a> members Peter Albin and David Getz aboard when they were left high and dry after <a href="spotify:artist:4NgfOZCL9Ml67xzM0xzIvC">Janis Joplin</a>'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. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi