Today we’d like to introduce you to Monte Montgomery.
Hi Monte, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started playing guitar at the age of 14. I learned my first chords from my mother, a guitar player. My first big break came when I was asked to perform on the long-running TV show Austin City Limits in 1999. Following that performance, I toured extensively across the US and Europe for about 12 years. Then I switched gears and started making music for television full-time after I got the call from Tim Allen to provide music for his TV show, Last Man Standing. After doing 10 seasons of music for LMS, the show officially ended. I am slowly cranking up the touring machine and getting back into playing live music full-time while writing and recording material to be released on my next cd.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Overall, it was a pretty smooth ride. I’ve always been able to earn a living making music. Of course challenges come with any endeavor and the music business is no different. I love what I do so I don’t really complain much about it. If I have to point to any struggles along the way, it would be from the management side of things i.e., failing to see eye to eye on some things professionally.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Although I am a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, I am mostly known for my guitar-playing abilities. I specialize in playing the acoustic guitar. I’m known for doing things on my beat-up acoustic guitar that you would only expect electric players to do. I’m proud that I’ve made a career out of doing what I want to do from a musical standpoint. I’ve never been willing to go in any specific direction that would pigeonhole me into a particular genre. What sets me apart from other artists is that I play my acoustic guitar in a way that you would only expect to see electric guitar players play. I have an aggressive style and that translates to audiences but it’s the visual side of that experience that is remembered the most.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was very much into music at a young age, always listening to the radio and sitting for hours every Sunday listening to the Top 40 countdown with Casey Kasem. I also was very much a funny kid. I was the class clown in school. In fact, on more than one occasion, when faced with someone bullying me, I used humor to defuse the situation and get the bully to laugh instead of continuing to push me around. I never went to high school because I played music with my mother in bars while every other kid my age was asleep in bed on school nights. I had no fixed address either, as my mother and I lived in a pickup truck with a camper shell on the back. We would often play in bars and then walk out to our truck and sleep there with a mattress, pillows, blankets, and guitars all around us.
Contact Info:
- Website: montemontgomery.com
