The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Musician James Montgomery bringing blues vibe to Space Ballroom
NEW HAVEN — It has been a while since the space that is now the Space Ballroom has been fully immersed in a blues vibe.
But that’s what will happen on Friday when the James Montgomery Band — featuring harmonica ace James Montgomery — stops by for a show that will feature Christine Ohlman, Cliff Goodwin and the Uptown Horns, led by Crispin Cioe.
Connecticut’s Tom “The Suit” Forst Band will open the show — billed as a “Blues Super Session” — which begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $25 in advance, available at spaceballroom.com, or $30 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Montgomery, a onetime member of the Johnny Winter Band, has played with all sorts of people during his five-decade career , beginning when he lived in Detroit, soaking up the blues of John Lee Hooker and Chicago neighbors James Cotton, Buddy Guy and Jr. Well, among others.
He has toured with everyone from the Allman Brothers, BB King and Bruce Springsteen to Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith and Steve Miller. In addition to Winter’s band, he was a member at one time of Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen — and even had a brief stint with the Blues Brothers.
The list of artists he has recorded with is even longer — including Cotton, Winter, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford from Aerosmith, rapper DMC, Jimmy Vivino, Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker, Paul Nelson, Grace Kelly, The Uptown Horns, Mark Naftalin and others.
Blue-eyed rock and soul sister Christine “The Beehive Queen” Ohlman also has shared the stage with a lot of people over the years, from former Saturday Night Live (and Scratch Band) bandmates G.E. Smith and Paul
Ossola to Rosanne Cash.
Ohlman, a 2017 inductee into the Connecticut Blues Hall of Fame of the American Heritage International Organization, is a native of the Bronx who grew up in Cheshire and now lives in Madison.
A longtime vocalist with NBC’s Saturday Night Live Band, Ohlman performs locally these days but also is a familiar face at venues in New York City and in and around Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
She also has had gigs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (as part of a 2016 tribute to David Bowie) and the WC Handy Festival in Muscle Shoals.
Ohlman, whose band includes Goodwin, also has recorded and appeared over the years with Elvis Costello, the B-52s, Ian Hunter, Dion DiMucci, Marshall Crenshaw, the late Levon Helm, Andy York, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, Catherine Russell, Big Al Anderson and others.
The Uptown Horns have played with and appeared on a long list of A-list artists’ recordings, including the Rolling Stones’ “Steel Wheels” album. They also toured as part of the Stones on the Steel Wheels tour and with Robert Plant & the Honeydrippers.
They’ve also performed or recorded with J. Geils Band, Buster Poindexter & His Banshees of Blue and blues greats Johnny Copeland, Albert Collins, among many others.
Forst is a 2018 inductee into the Connecticut Blues Hall of Fame of the American Heritage International Organization.