Monte Montgomery

Monte Montgomery has a few things really going for him: he is a hellacious guitarist, he writes good songs and he puts his music over with absolute conviction and a huge presence.
On the other hand he is playing in a field of one, he has hardly played the UK enough to register on people’s memory and he borders on arrogance.
All that being said, this album is a stonking piece of work and, if he get his ass over here to show what he can do, will excite a whole lot of Blues and Jazz fans.

Montgomery plays acoustic six-string guitar and loads it up with all sorts of electronic cleverness and the result is a guitar sound like you never heard in your life – his snapping plucking at the strings and the jazz-like tuning is as unlike ‘normal’ Blues as anything I can imagine and while his backing band is squarely in rock/Blues territory he has a far more melodic and fluid feel to his playing and vocals.

This album was originally recorded in 2001 but Provogue have released it now that they have signed Montgomery and, after catching him supporting Walter Trout last year, it is a pretty good representation of the man live.
He solos like a demon with most songs leading to a free section but there isn’t any guitar-wanking here – the solo is a genuine part of the song and sounds like a properly developed idea rather than a shredders delight. The band are more than capable and follow him without any problems so that songs become intense stretch-outs and as a listener you get taken deeper and deeper into the maelstrom of the song. ‘Set Your Soul Free’ is a case in point as his powerful, throaty vocals give over to a section of technically superb but completely organic playing that has the audience whooping in delight. ‘The River’ is full of mysticism and imagery with a stunning vocal performance and then a slide guitar that sends chills down your back.
The playing throughout is quite stunning if the drumming is occasionally a little overpowering but the bass playing is simply brilliant.

My biggest gripe over the album is that the songs are cut off just as the audience is applauding so that the effect is of snapshots rather than a complete performance but the production otherwise is fine and the sound quality is good enough.

Monte Montgomery sounds as though he can live up to the label of “One of the finest guitarists of all time” and where we get to hear the audience they seem to be enjoying themselves immensely – I just wish we could get the full glory of the man on a stage in the UK.