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"Texas six-string acoustic virtuoso Monte Montgomery leads his three-piece band
high-energy originals... like fellow guitar hero Jimi Hendrix, Montgomery effortlessly
pulls out-of-this-world textures from his axe, all while serving as his band’s lead vocalist.”
-– Scott Smith, Southwest Times Record
“How Monte Montgomery gets roped in with the Americana crowd, I'm not sure. He certainly
doesn't share much sonically with the likes of Pat Green and Cross Canadian Ragweed.
Contrary to what one might expect from his bio (Mom was a Luckenbach-based folkie; her
gigs were all stolen by young Monte), there's not a lot of country in the mix here. In fact, when
Montgomery essays a Merle Haggard tune he sounds like he's taking the piss out of Hag.
Curious, to say the least. The proximate model here is more like how the Dave Matthews Band
would sound if Matthews were a really killer guitarist. Montgomery's songs, like Dave Matthews',
run on funky syncopations and percussion-driven grooves. Within a single song, he'll use the
plethora of effects connected to his Alvarez acoustic-electric to switch smoothly from a
crystalline timbre to a thick, saturated tone. His axe assaults have a lot in common with the
playing of that elusive perfectionist and fellow Austinite Eric Johnson -- so dazzling is his
fretwork, so fertile is his melodic imagination. Not only that, but the cat can sing, too.
Montgomery's choice of covers reveals roots in '70s pop-rock -- the Lindsay Buckingham-era
Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits, even, uh, Hall and Oates -- and he himself is a practitioner of the
moody, gravel-throated Paul Rodgers method of rock vocalizing. With this and the upcoming
Derek Trucks Band show, it looks like Aardvark impresario/Action guitarist Danny Weaver
might be trying to transform his flagship club into Guitar Freaks' Heaven. No complaints here.”
-– Ken Shimamoto, Fort Worth Weekly
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