Do I Move You by Merl Saunders (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Do I Move You

Artist name: Merl Saunders

Year: 1979

Number of discs: one

Label: Crystal Clear Records

Collection: Friedman

Distinguishing characteristics: clipped top right corner

Buy it on Amazon: $20.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am not familiar with Merl Saunders, who is almost certainly not the same person as Merle Haggard or Merle Travis, and he probably is not even the woman on the album cover, either.

What I expected

From reading the back of the album, I learned two important things. The first was that Merl Saunders enjoyed a long and extensive collaboration and association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. The second was, “The music on this first direct-to-disc album […] combines jazz and R&B elements with a fiery touch of today’s disco-rock sound.” Yikes.

What it was actually like

This record was a disco abomination.

The worst part was the sound of someone blowing a whistle on Melons In Season, and the second worst part was the saxophone solo on that same song.

Do I Move You was a Nina Simone cover and had much more of a blues sound than any of the other songs. It was the best on the record by far, but still nowhere near as good as the original.