Alliance, OH, USA • 1969-1972

Morly Grey formed in Alliance, Ohio in 1969 with Tim Roller on guitar, Mark Roller on bass and vocals, and Paul Cassidy on drums and vocals. Guitarist Randy Byron, formerly of the Comin’ Generation, was part of the earliest lineup but didn’t stay long. Before their album, the band self-released a rare and much gentler 45, “Sleepy Softness,” whose flip side was the same song played backwards.

In 1971 they started recording their LP at Cleveland Recording under the working title “The First Supper.” When health problems forced Paul Cassidy out, Bob LaNave took over on drums, and the band wrote and cut “The Only Truth,” “After Me Again” and “I’ve Got A Feeling For You” at Peppermint Recording in Youngstown. Released in 1972 on the Starshine label with a full-size color poster, “The Only Truth” has since become a sought-after (and often counterfeited) record among collectors.

That same fall of 1971, while rehearsing for a planned live album at a high school auditorium in Vienna, Ohio, the trio was quietly taped in their band-house basement by a roadie with an 8-track cartridge recorder and two small mics on the floor. “The Basement Tapes,” as the band called them, sat forgotten for nearly fifty years until Tim found the cartridge in an old box of band tapes. Ancient Grease Records has restored these previously unheard songs, a raw snapshot of Morly Grey at full force.