GOING HALL IN
James Montgomery decided to play the blues when he was just a teenager. Now 40 years later he’s still going strong, and entering the RI Music Hall of Fame.
PAWTUCKET – James Montgomery says he’ll never forget the moment when he was wowed by a musical performance and came to the conclusion that the stage life was for him. He was 15 years old and saw Detroit-based saxophonist and songwriter Crispin Cioe playing live blues harmonica, transforming a small brass instrument into the centerpiece of his set.
“I was just so struck. I was a big rock and roll fan, hearing the harmonica for the first time, I’d never heard that,” Montgomery said in an interview with The Times. “It hit a really visceral chord, not to sound cliché, but it connected me to my soul and it was unbelievable.”
Within six months, Montgomery was playing harmonica and fronting a band that – even though he was still in high school – was opening for national touring acts such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges. Despite still being a teenager, Montgomery was already drawing comparisons to Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and musical innovator Frank Zappa.
Now, some 40-plus years later, Montgomery is receiving yet more plaudits, as he’ll be inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame. He’s perhaps best known around Rhode Island as the front man for The James Montgomery Band, regarded as one of the greatest bluesmen of his generation, and is the host of “Backstage with the Blues,” a syndicated radio show broadcast out of Newport.
“There’s a thing that happens when you have a great night with the band and the audience, it sounds like some kind of cosmic whatever. The band, the audience, the music becomes one.”
Montgomery became a Rhode Islander in the late-1980s and settled in Newport for 22 years and Jamestown for about nine years. He says in some circles, Rhode Island is an “underrated state,” but he understands “what a gem it is.”
“The band is about 49 years old, probably 35 of those years we’re in Rhode Island,” he said.
Montgomery’s first introduction to New England came when he attended Boston University in 1970. Within 60 days of arriving at the college campus, Montgomery had already formed a jam band which grew in success and served as the opening act for the likes of Canned Heat and Steve Miller.
After college, Montgomery landed a record deal from Capricorn Records and was soon touring with prominent acts such as The Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bonnie Raitt, Foghat, and Humble Pie.
But regardless of whether he was playing a sold-out stadium or a small crowd in an intimate club setting, Montgomery says it’s the music that carries the night, not where it’s being played.
“There’s a thing that happens when you have a great night with the band and the audience, it sounds like some kind of cosmic whatever. The band, the audience, the music becomes one. You find the music becomes you,” Montgomery said. “That’s a good night … When we first started playing with The Allman Brothers, it was right after Woodstock. It can happen there or it can happen if you’re playing Chan’s. It’s not so much the setting, it’s those particular nights when everything connects.”
Montgomery credits blues harmonica players James Cotton and Paul Butterfield as his inspirations. While his first exposure to blues was “rural and country,” he eventually grew to appreciate a more urban style of blues heard in the Chicago area.
“I was really blown away by the high energy approach by James Cotton. He took no prisoners … One of the most innovative musicians ever,” Montgomery said. “My new CD is dedicated to Paul. When (Bob) Dylan went electric, he used the Paul Butterfield Band, when the (Grateful) Dead saw Butterfield in 1965, they said ‘Wow, look at that!”
He also says he’s been impressed by the artistry of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band – “inspirations to me in terms of what it means to be a front man” – and novelist Jack Kerouac.
While writing music is a little bit of a different process for every musician and songwriter, Montgomery says he usually comes up with an idea and builds a song from the melody and chorus out. After developing the chorus, he’ll piece together a verse, saying “that happens relatively quickly for me.” Coming up with the bridge and finishing the song, though, is where his creativi- ty shines, saying: “I usually get an inspiration and flesh it out, that usually happens pretty spontaneously.”
Montgomery on April 29 will be among the 10 inductees to the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018. His inductee exhibit will be unveiled inside the Hope Artiste Village on Main Street in Pawtucket, followed by a concert honoring Montgomery and five other inductees.
The unveiling ceremony for all 2018 inductees is at 2 p.m. inside Hope Artiste Village, 999 Main St. The concert follows at 3 p.m. at The Met with a performance from The James Montgomery Band and a Paul Murphy tribute jam session featuring past inductees and collaborators.
Being inducted into the Hall of Fame was like being welcomed into a family, Montgomery said.
“I know a couple of people were lobbying for me. My initial feeling wasn’t ‘Wow.’ I know a lot of people in the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame. My initial reaction was really what a great family to be a part of. It wasn’t like ‘Wow, I’m in the Hall of Fame, they’ll put up pictures of me,’ I really felt like now I’ve been accepted into that family. The honor of being associated with John Cafferty and Duke Robillard.”
Montgomery will also induct late blues guitarist and James Montgomery Band member Paul Murphy.
“It’s extremely meaningful to induct Paul Murphy. We drove together to every show, worked over 100 nights a year, we became really, really close,” Montgomery said. “When we do that portion, the Paul section, then I think we’re all going to jam.”
“As a blues musician, because of the form, jamming is always a part of it,” he continued. “It makes for great fun because you’re creating something right there in the moment and that gets back to everything disappearing except the music itself. Those guys will be playing on that stage, some of the best players in the world. It’s a chance for all of us to get up and see what the other guy brings to the table and have fun playing with it.”
As for the status of blues music in today’s pop culture zeitgeist, Montgomery hearkened back to the words of his producer, who in 1974 told him: “Blues is cyclical.”
“It’s a niche market and with every niche market, there’s always going to be young people that are drawn to it that have that moment that they love jazz, classical, blues,” he explained. “There’s always going to be a lot of young people that come to the music, people that discover it through the way people did during the British Invasion, with what influenced The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin.”
“That cycle will go on and on, it’ll never go away, there will always be plenty of space available for good blues musicians to make a living and play that form,” he said.
Montgomery recently released his first new studio album in several years on Cleopatra Records, titled “The James Montgomery Blues Band: A Tribute To Paul Butterfield.”
Prior to the concert and main induction ceremony Sunday in Pawtucket, the ceremony for jazz inductions takes place this Thursday at Chan’s, 267 Main St., Woonsocket. Restaurant owner John Chan will be honored, along with jazz pianist Mike Renzi, who will perform. The events begin at 7 p.m.
And on Friday, May 4, James Montgomery will be back in Woonsocket for an 8 p.m. show at Chan’s. Visit www.chanseggrollsandjazz.
com for ticket information.
“I really felt like now I’ve been accepted into that family – the honor of being associated with John Cafferty and Duke Robillard.”