Monte Montgomery goes his own way (2010) - tahoe.com Interview (2010)

By Tim Parsons, Tahoe.com

It might sound like an absurd question, but the reporter knew the musician had been asked before, so he went ahead and inquired: What’s your reaction to being called the world’s greatest guitar player?

“It’s nice to be held in such high regard but I don’t have anything to do with that,” Monte Montgomery said. “If people want to think that, I know better, but I also think I’m doing something unique. I’m doing something different.”

Montgomery will perform Monday, Feb. 15, at the Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room with a rhythm section and a guitar he has used since 1988. That the show is free is as amazing as the guitar still being functional after 22 years. Montgomery looks like a contortionist as he manipulates the instrument to make unique tones.

“I really abuse that thing,” he said. “I’ve taken it overseas and everywhere I go. I’m sure I’ve paid more money on it than I paid to get it. A guitar is like wine. It just mellows out with age and just gets better. I wish I could get a new guitar that would feel that way but it’s just not going to happen.”

If not the world’s greatest guitar player, Montgomery may be the greatest guitarist you’ve never heard of.
“I’ve been described as maybe being too complex for the average listener, and I think that comes from my guitar playing mostly,” he said. “I don’t steer my music to fit radio or anything like that. I just do what I do, and that’s all I’ve ever done. I have my influences. I have things that affect me emotionally and touch me when I’m writing.”

The first influence was Montgomery’s mother, who would make the chords while her son sat in her lap and strummed the strings. When they moved to Texas, Monte was 13. He never went to high school, choosing instead to pursue music.

He played in bands, often as the lead electric guitar player. But he missed playing acoustic.

“So when I started my own band I would do both and open up with some acoustic sets,” he said. “Over time people were more receptive to the acoustic, and I was playing the acoustic just like I was playing the electric. People really seemed to like that so I just left my electric at home along with the heavy amps that went with it. It simplified everything, and I’m just really at home with my acoustic. It’s just a much more expressive instrument for what I do.”

Montgomery was most impressed with Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, the pop rock, fingerstyle innovator whose notes seem come directly from his heart.

“The fascination with Lindsey began early,” he said. “I can definitely point to him as being responsible for the whole fingerpicking thing that I do. He does some of the craziest stuff without a pick.”

Moreover, Montgomery absorbs styles from numerous guitarists, from “Michael Hedges to Steve Vai to everybody in between. Stevie Ray, Jeff Beck, Lindsey Buckingham, Mark Knopfler, I could go on and on. I love great guitar players. I think my versatility is the result of being open to all flavors of music. ... It’s afforded me an unorthodox style. It’s got a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I’m an ear guy. I just soak things up.”

An example is Montgomery’s version of “Little Wing,” a Jimi Hendrix song that became a huge hit for Stevie Ray Vaughan. The tune is the only cover from the new album, “Monte Montgomery,” which was recorded live in a Nashville studio under the direction of producer John Billings and Neil Young recording engineer Rob Clark. Like many of the tracks, “Little Wing” was recorded in a single take.

“When I was in a bar band, I was goofing off on it because I was a huge Stevie Ray fan,” he said. “I never sat down and tried to learn it. I learned it through saturation, I had heard it so long. It’s an instrumental version like Stevie’s. I didn’t know the words and still don’t. That song has turned into a staple. When people come to a show, people expect to hear that, and with the advent of YouTube, it’s gotten me a great deal of exposure in Europe. I don’t do it anything like Stevie, I don’t do it anything like Hendrix. It’s my own thing.”

Performing songs by legends like Vaughan and Hendrix leads to accolades such as Guitar Player magazine listing Montgomery among the “Top 50 All-Time Greatest Guitar Players.”

“ I try to convey my heartfelt feelings and try to put my emotion into a song,” Montgomery said. “If it catches fire, fine, but I’m not really doing it for that. It’s not really up to me to decide where I fit or how I fare in the greatest guitar player contest.”

Source: tahoe.com

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