Mel And The Tall Boys, fronted by singer-songwriter Mel Johnston, are billed as “New York’s hardest-working bar band” on their one-sheet and it shows in these grooves. The group’s debut full-length The Frontier Of Love is a collection of distinctly “out of time” tunes, rooted in the postwar pop / early rock era of the mid-1950s up to around 1962, that are played with such authority, affection and cheek that it’s easy to get swept up in their very specific and consistently engaging musical vision.

The Tall Boys are anchored by guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/producer/mixer Kyle Lacy, with Andy Bell and JC Myska frequently featured on bass and drums, plus notable guest appearances by Billy Aukstik (trumpet), Cole Stone-Frisina (sax) and Camelia Hartman (violin). The music—eight tracks composed by Johnston and Lacy, separately and together, and two covers—is full of sass and panache. Mel plays a character here, an early rock era vocalist and frontwoman, and inhabits the role completely, delivering a refresher course in the styles of acts like Peggy Lee, Mary Weiss and the Shangri-Las, Fats Domino and the Ventures.

“Rollin’” kicks things off in style, a fast-slow-fast lounge-y blues rocker with abundant attitude and come-hither flirtatiousness that clearly embraces the traditional interpretation of the phrase “rock and roll.” Early Motown rhythms and vocal arrangements fuel “Fall A Little Faster,” and then the driving r&b of “Baby Blues” gets frisky again as Mel sings “I wanna swim in your pool / I wanna get soaking wet.”

The title track is somewhat of an outlier (though chronologically appropriate), with an echoey, exotic spaghetti Western vibe in play as Johnston contrasts romantic love with love of creating and performing. The bright, sweet “Make Room” features a rockabilly backbeat behind the romantic notion “I’ll always make room for you,” a nice lead-in for the first cover, the grinding, greasy blue number “Every Night About This Time,” from the pen of Fats Domino.

Chuck Berry enters that chat with “Runnin’ Around,” a bopping early rock number, before they switch lanes for the smoky, tip-toeing lounge blues of “Don’t Try To Cover Your Tracks,” featuring trumpet and piano. The album hits a crescendo with penultimate track “The Breeze,” a Johnston-penned ballad with a big airy arrangement full of longing and drama, accentuated with violin and tambourine.

Mel And The Tall Boys close things out here with a Randy Newman cover, which sounds surprising, not to mention out of sync chronologically, but doesn’t feel that way at all coming out of your speakers. “Guilty” is a slow and steady blues with typically acerbic Newman lyrics:

You know—you know how it is with me, Baby
You know I just can’t stand myself
It takes a whole lotta medicine
For me to pretend that I’m somebody else

Not only is the lyric tonally in sync with the rest of the album, it feels rather meta, given that Mel Johnston is herself playing a role here—a larger-than-life one.

The Frontier Of Love is a terrific showcase for Mel Johnston’s brassy and big-hearted retro approach, with The Tall Boys providing sharp, enthusiastic musical backing. The aforementioned one-sheet also suggests that Mel And The Tall Boys are “NYC’s best kept secret.” How ’bout we get to work changing that?

Rating: B+

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