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"Once upon a time, people like the Everly Brothers, Carole King and Sam Cooke made pop songstimeless, accessible and instantly familiar music. Melvern Taylor and The Fabulous Meltones craft brilliant songs that remind us that pop isnt a dirty word.

Taylors dreamy voice is a singular wonder. He grew up in Andover, Mass., secretly listening to his older siblings Beatles and Stones records. They had an acoustic guitar I wasnt supposed to touch, too, says Taylor. One rainy Saturday when I was in seventh grade, I sat in my room with their guitar and an Eagles songbook. Taylor taught himself to play guitar from the book, but the problems with having such a narrow repertoire quickly became apparentespecially when he played with others. Theyd say Hey, do you know Iron Man? says Taylor with a chuckle, and Id say, No. Do you know Witchy Woman?

Taylor spent the bulk of the 1990s fronting the 70s-influenced pop-rock band band Mudfoot along with guitarist Dave Livingston and drummer/engineer Bob Nash. Following the demise of Mudfoot, Taylor enlisted Livingston and Nash along with upright bassist Johnny Grant to back Taylor at the CD release show for his first solo offering, Handsome Bastard. The CD got the attention of former Portsmouth record store owner Kevin Guyer, who released Taylors next offering, The Spider and the Barfly on his own label, Broken White Records, in 1998. However, it was 2003s pop gem Fabuloso that changed everything.

When the ukulele came into the picture, says Taylor excitedly, I thought, Oh my God! This is the best instrument in the world! It just suits me. The band played live and in-the-round in the studio to record Good Time Flavor, which will be released in the next few months by Mill Town Records (www.milltownrecords.com). It was an experiment, Taylor says of the bands live-in-the-round approach, and the experiment was a success. Taylors silky singing and The Meltones deft backing are carrying the pop music torch quite nicely, thank you."

-Jon Nolan