Acclaimed by those in the know ? such as Guitar Player magazine, which rated him one of ?The Top 50 All-Time Greatest Guitarists? in an article published in 2004 ? Monte Montgomery also qualifies as one of music?s best kept secrets. He headed Guitar One magazines list of the ?Top 10 Best Undiscovered Guitarists in America? in the 1990s, shortly before coming to prominence at least in Texas, where he won the ?Best Acoustic Guitar Player? award at the Austin Music Awards seven years in a row.

07/07/2008

Those who have heard him might quibble at describing him as an ?Acoustic Guitar Player?. Yes, his guitar is acoustic. But the way he plays it isn?t. ?Electric Acoustic Guitar? is nearer the mark but it still doesn?t do justice. This isn?t acoustic guitar playing amplified ? this is electric guitar playing in a traditional three-piece band, complete with sustain, distortion and the whole caboodle, but played on an acoustic. Besides his incredible playing technique, using hybrid picking, Monte Montgomery has had to master control of his Alvarez at high volume ? the guitar basically, as he puts it, ?wants to explode?. And he?s doing things, such as extreme neck bends, that no acoustic guitar was designed to withstand. But how else are you going to play the most incredible version of Little Wing since Hendrix first recorded it? LickLibrary TV caught up with Monte Montgomery at the only London date on his first ever European tour.