Customer Reviews

Duel in the Desert

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This is a guitar album, and if you do not like loud electric rock music, this CD is not for you. Elder rock legend Barry "The Fish" Melton meets up with one of his biggest fans, Rich Hopkins. Rich, is the rock prince of Tucson, Arizona. Together these two musicians had a plan...turn back the clocks to 1969 and crank it out.

Barry, was one of those players that set San Francisco on fire during the mid 1960's, and along with John Cippolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, he among the very finest guitarists that California had to brag about. English musicians such as: Clapton, Beck and Page, would watch him closely as a study of change that occurred in early 1967, that would forever alter the way that rock music would be performed.

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2005 Barry and Rich met up in Arizona, set up their vintage guitars and amps, found a bass guitar player and drummer, and set the clocks back to another time, forty years back near The Golden Gate.

Key tracks are: "Alabama Bound", "The Highway Is A Devil", "Thirty Days", "Pretty Polly" and right in the center of the disc, the insrumental track entitled: "Duel In The Desert" that is a classic guitar "Freak-Out" between Barry and Rich of massive distortion and waa-fuzz pedal wonder that really captures the spirit of times long past. This kind of rock music belongs to the young, or the young at heart. Both artists share vocal duties, and Barry has a few moments infront of the microphone on this CD, and he is a welcome surprise as the better vocalist of the two.

This bluesy, raw rock is way out of place today, in this pop world of: "American Idol" and fans of Jessica's latest release. It is the music of small bars and roadhouses from Tallahassee to Tacoma. This is good rock music that is so much more akin to time way back and of decades past.
The music here will only appeal to a limited audience, it is the sound of guys playing for the fun of playing.

The spirit of what could have been, does exist on this CD. The vocal work is not polished in some spots, and that does lower the overall quality of this work from where it should be. As limited time was available for this, it is too bad we will not hear better and more complete versions of this music.
3.5 Stars.