Is Monte Montgomery The Best Guitar Player Ever?

Don’t fret! Before you dig your claws into me for writing that title, allow me to posit that my statement is obviously subjective. Hey. He’s amazing, and I thought it was certainly warranted based on what I’ve seen (about a hundred times since 1995 by the way). I’m what they call a “Montiac”.

mon·ti·ac (mā’ntÄ“-āk’) – noun
any intemperate or overly zealous or enthusiastic person…when pertaining to Monte Montgomery.

It sounds like a bad thing? Give me a sec. I’m not nearly as devoted as most Montiacs, many of which have seen him about a hundred times this year alone. What makes him so special? Well, he sports a battered Alvarez acoustic, and an ability to confuse even the most avid guitar players with his finger and pick style of play. Oh, and he’s not a bad songwriter either. Unfortunately, he hasn’t attained the commercial notoriety of the greats like Clapton, Hendrix, Beck, Van Halen, Satriani, SRV, Page…the list goes on. While I don’t consider myself a guru or qualify myself as worthy of ranking him up there with those names, I definitely believe he’s deserving of such respect. Have a look at this video. It’s old and poor quality, but in my humble opinion, the best version of Monte’s rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing that I could find (my favorite includes his former bass player, Lonnie Trevino, Jr., who actually sang the song and did it absolute justice). While it might be considered taboo for me to say that Monte rips the best version of the song I’ve ever heard period, you can certainly understand why the thought crosses my mind after watching this.

Here’s one more version just for comparison’s sake: Monte Montgomery Little Wing

Read more about Monte on his Official Website and on his fan website, The Full Monte. I’d highly suggest seeing Monte live. You won’t be disappointed.

• Thursday, December 28, 2006 – Mucky Duck, Houston, TX
• Sunday, December 31, 2006 – Granada Theater, Dallas, TX
• Friday, January 12, 2007 – Cactus Cafe, Austin, TX
• Thursday, January 18, 2007 – The Knitting Factory, Hollywood, CA

For more dates, click here. By the way, a good starter CD would be Mirror.

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