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:: Release Info:
::
:: Artist......> Melvin Seals
:: Title.......> Melting Pot
:: Label.......> Rainman
:: Genre.......> Blues
:: Rip.Date....> 02.14.2005
:: Street.Date.> 01.25.2005
:: Source......> CDDA
:: Quality.....> VBRkbps - Joint-Stereo
:: Play Time...> 58:49 min
::
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:: Track Listing:
::
:: 01. Close Call
:: 02. Celebrate
:: 03. Travellin Man
:: 04. I'm Not Going to Cry Anymore
:: 05. I Dont Know Why
:: 06. Its Samba Night
:: 07. Woman with an Attitude
:: 08. Love is in the Air
:: 09. Hands
:: 10. Reggae World
:: 11. When You Love Someone
::
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:: Release Notes:
::
::
:: Melvin Seals has had a powerful presence in the music
:: industry for over 30 years, playing with the likes of Chuck
:: Berry, Charlie Daniels and Elvin Bishop. The powerful
:: keyboardist was playing with Bishop one memorable night back
:: in 1980:
::
:: This big guy, he was just playing a Fender Rhodes. But he was
:: playing it so tastyàHe was just playing the tastiest little
:: stuff, I thought, This guy is just too much! I asked him what
:: his names was. He said Melvin Seals.ö
:: Jerry Garcia, on meeting Melvin Seals
::
:: It was early 1980 and the Jerry Garcia Band was looking for a
:: new keyboardist. Melvin started playing with us, and he was
:: just a monster. He turned out to be the guy that we were
:: looking for all along. Jerry Garcia
::
:: I had no idea what was going on,ö Melvin recalls of his early
:: days with the Jerry Garcia Band. ôI was fresh out of the
:: church and suddenly I was in a strange place where all the
:: locals had skeletons with flowers in their hair. I didnÆt
:: talk much, I was shy, playing the organ and getting out of
:: there as soon as I could.
::
:: Melvin's fears that he had stumbled into some kind of satanic
:: cult were laid to rest when he talked with Jerry about the
:: skeletons. I realized that it was just what it was. It made
:: me feel a whole lot better. Jerry knew the Bible inside out.
:: He respected my values. I saw that these were peaceful
:: people.
::
:: Jerry's music spoke to Melvin in a language all its own.
:: ôThere was church vibe all over the music, a sacredness vibe,
:: it was like what's known in church as a spiritual experience.
:: Musically, I felt compatible. The way I played the organ was
:: exactly what Jerry wanted.
::
:: Fifteen years later Jerry was gone and it was another seven
:: years before Melvin heard the Jerry sound again. It was last
:: summer at a concert in the Rockies when Melvin played for the
:: first time with a New Jersey-based Grateful Dead tribute band
:: called Ripple and felt compelled to start a new JGB band.
::
:: ôThere are a lot of cover bands but these guys are different,
:: Melvin observes. Ron Penque has a voice just like Jerry û you
:: close your eyes and itÆs Jerry. Jimmy Saluzzi plays guitar
:: identical to Jerry, right down to the mistakes, right chords,
:: right timing, itÆs the church vibe.
::
:: It only took 24 years to do this, says Jimmy Saluzzi the new
:: JGB's lead guitar and vocals. I understand how Jerry thinks.
:: Every Jerry band, they play the same rock scale, they donÆt
:: play that intricate walkdown, updown, triplets. You donÆt
:: stay in one scale, you got to work it, start off low at the
:: bottom of the scale, bring it up the middle of the neck, then
:: at the last fret, you canÆt overplay your notes, youÆve got
:: to tease it. If you jumped into a high note, where are you
:: going to go? You have to know how to stretch a screen in
:: between frets, out of tune, bring it in tune. I love it!ö
::
:: Relentlessly reaching for the totality of the Jerry sound,
:: Jimmy
:: is now working at a feverish level of intensity to get the
:: finger picking down to perfection on his handcrafted T.W.
:: Doyle guitar. When Jimmy Saluzzi speaks of getting Jerry
:: Garcia absolutely right, from sweeping concept to tiniest
:: nuance, a throb in his voice echoes the ôsacredness vibeö
:: that first connected Melvin Seals to Jerry Garcia.
::
:: We first saw the Jerry Garcia Band in 78 at the Capital
:: Theater, recalls Ron Penque bassist/vocalist whose voice
:: brings Jerry back for Melvin. Ron and Jimmy grew up together
:: in Northern New Jersey with Jerry Garcia's music the defining
:: motif of their adolescence. We've been doing it for
:: twenty-five years and at some point it became more of a style
:: that we were taught by the masters û it became a part of us.ö
::
:: Another Bergen County kid whose musical life shaped itself to
:: the Jerry sound was the versatile Johnny Markowski, a
:: songwriter like his father Thomas Jefferson Kaye.
::
:: I had my first band in the fourth grade; it was called Four
:: Wheel Drive. I was the drummer, recalls Johnny, a dynamo
:: whoÆs been putting bands together ever since.
::
:: Johnny became known with Stir Fried, a jam band he co-formed,
:: for which he wrote all the songs, and sang lead. He joined
:: Ripple several months ago and with characteristic verve
:: worked on getting the guys a chance to play with Melvin Seals
:: and the cycle came full circle. Just as Jerry found in Melvin
:: the keyboardist he had been seeking, Melvin has found in
:: Ripple the Jerry he had lost. Johnny expresses what theyÆre
:: all feeling:
::
:: Jerry Garcia Band was my absolute favorite band in the world
:: and I'm honored to be able to carry on the torch and play
:: homage to the heart and feel and tones. I'm honored to be
:: playing with Melvin Seals who blew me away at every concert I
:: went to. We're all honored to be KEEPERS OF THE FLAME.
::
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::
:: RiP iN PeACe!
::
::
::
::....................................................................