Monte Montgomery

As a leading voice on the music scene in Austin, TX, guitarist Monte Montgomery slowly gained national recognition for his amazing dexterity, fluid harmonics, percussive dynamics, and melodic sensibility. Montgomery won his fourth consecutive title as best acoustic guitarist at the 2001 Austin Music Awards at the SXSW Festival. Songs written by Montgomery in early 2001 followed suit from his previous releases, 1998's 1st and Repair and 1999's Mirror, in that they all focus on storytelling, a quality he derived from listening to Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Bob Dylan. "Tug of War," a song written in 2001, was about the give and take in relationships. "All on Me" started as a slow ballad, then transformed into a guitar anthem. Montgomery continued to tour in 2001 with his quartet -- bassist Lonnie Trevino, drummer Phil Bass, and percussionist Mike Urdy -- performing songs loosely based on his experiences or gathered from his understanding of and observations of other people. Montgomery's sandy voice and rapid fingerpicking gained him comparisons to Mark Knopfler and Bruce Cockburn, but his true heritage lay in the tradition of Texas guitarists B.W. Stevenson, Shake Russell, and Guy Clark, whom he discovered in his youth. National acclaim started to come his way after appearances on PBS music television shows, such as Austin City Limits, CD Highway, and Texas Music Cafe. His growing talents as a guitarist and songwriter came from the understanding of melody and rhythm he gained from hearing pop icons Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, and the Neville Brothers. Montgomery's journey to guitar stardom started in the Hill Country hamlet near Fredericksburg, TX, where his mom (Maggie Montgomery, herself a folk-country singer and guitarist in Luckenbach, TX)...