by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
WHO: Cocoa Montoya
WHEN: Thursday, February 22nd
WHERE: Cafe Eleven, St. Augustine
After a 30 year career of touring the globe as one of the most respected blues artists in the biz, Coco Montoya is forging ahead with a vengeance, having released his new CD on Alligator Records, Dirty Deal. It’s been five years since Coco released an album and he is especially proud of this collection of original songs.
Coco is double threat. He’s blessed with a powerful voice and bull chops on guitar, yet he still travels light, without roadies. He’s a grizzled road dog who unloads and loads his equipment and changes his own strings. Yes, Coco lives and breathes the blues with his fiercely original style which hovers on the brink of crossing over into rock. More importantly, Coco created his unique sound based on his emotional attachment to his music, which keeps him motivated and inspired to keep on touring.
Roots touched Coco when he met the blues icon Albert Collins who offered Coco a gig as his drummer. Albert became Coco’s mentor and taught him the secrets of his “icy hot” style of blues guitar. Five years later, John Mayall caught Coco at a gig and hired him as a sideman with his legendary Bluesbreakers. In 1993, Coco stepped out front as a solo artist. Over the years he has released four solo albums on either Blind Pig or Alligator. Now, back in the Alligator stable, Coco is out touring to support his hot new album, Dirty Deal.
Since I have been driving around with Coco’s new CD in my car stereo, and have covered Coco’s live show at least twice at the Springing the Blues Festival, I was anxious to talk with him to find out what he’s been up to since my last encounter with him. So I called him at his home in Los Angeles where he lives with his girlfriend. He was just packing to leave for the East Coast to start his tour.
After chatting awhile and hitting it off, I asked Coco a sensitive question about his status in the music biz and whether or not he ever made any concessions to make his music more commercial. Yeah, it was a loaded question and I immediately regretted asking it. But I think he understood where was coming from.
“I’ve always played the music that moved me–mainly the blues but my guitar style crosses over into blues-rock. However, I’ve never even considered the commercial value of my music. Fortunately for me, people like my music and buy my albums. First and foremost, I please myself and then work hard to project my creative energy to my audience. To endure the rigors of touring, I have to be inspired, and I draw my inspiration from my blues roots with Albert Collins and John Mayall. My process in creating my music is taking my life experiences and distilling them into my songs,” Coco said.
I think my question came out wrong, but he knew that I meant that sometimes with certain producers, by tweaking the artist’s sound a bit, it may make the record more commercial. But in the end, it’s up to the fickle whims of music buyers. Blues lovers are a dedicated bunch and it’s a stable market. Coco is well known among blues aficionados. Then I asked him why it had been five years in-between albums and to elaborate on his recording sessions.
“I’m primarily a performer and I find it difficult to find the time to write songs, especially while on the road. So, it takes me longer to produce a new album of songs. I do have two collaborators, Dave Stein and Gary Nicholson who bounce ideas back and forth, helping me write my songs. For the Dirty Deal sessions, I collaborated with the guys from Little Feat, specifically, Paul Barrere, Kenny Gradney, Richie Hanwood, Fred Hackett, and Bill Payne. I also played on my friend Tommy Castro’s album Painkiller.”
“For this tour, I have a new keyboardist, Dover Weinberg. Dover has played with Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Lloyd Jones, and Curtis Salado. He brings a lot of new ideas and cool orchestration to our band and we’re glad to have him,” Coco said.
Dirty Deal was produced by Paul Barerre and engineered by Roger Cole. The members of Little Feat invited Coco to their annual Feat Festival in Jamaica two years in a row. This exposure won Coco many new fans of Little Feat. Coco is living the blues as one of the top artists of the genre. Fellow blues devotees don’t miss this one. Get there early if you want a seat.
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