Ronnie Montrose - ...and on guitar (1989)

Ronald Douglas Montrose was born on 29 November 1947 in San Francisco, and when he was a toddler his parents moved back to his mother's home state of Colorado, where he spent most of his younger years in Denver. When he was about 16 years old he ran away from home to pursue his musical career, but he wouldn't join his first real band for another six years, when in 1969 he joined Sawbuck, with Mojo Collins (lead vocals, guitar), Starr Donaldson (guitar, vocals), Chuck Ruff (drums) and Bill Church (bass). They were signed to Fillmore Records, co-owned by producer David Rubinson and promoter Bill Graham, and they toured and opened for major acts, before recoding their only album at the beginning of 1971, and it was during this time that Rubinson arranged an audition for Montrose with Van Morrison. Morrison, having recently moved from New York to California, needed a new band to record his next album 'Tupelo Honey', and so both Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Morrison before the sessions had finished for the 'Sawbuck' album, and so they only appeared on two songs on the 1972 album from the band. As well as songs from 'Tupelo Honey', Montrose and Church also played on the song 'Listen To The Lion', which was recorded at the same time but not released until the following year, when it appeared on 1972's 'Saint. Dominic's Preview'. After that, Montrose played briefly with Boz Scaggs, and then added guitar to an unreleased album by Kendell Kardt, where he was so taken with Kardt's song 'Black Train' that he covered it on one of his later albums. In 1972 he joined The Edgar Winter Group, and when he recruited Chuck Ruff to join him it essentially spelled the end of Sawbuck. After playing electric guitar, 12 string acoustic and mandolin on Winter's third album 'They Only Come Out at Night', he left to form his own band, the eponymously named Montrose, in 1973. 

Featuring Sammy Hagar on vocals, they released two albums on Warner Bros. Records, 'Montrose' in 1973, and 'Paper Money' the following year, before Hagar left to pursue a solo career. With his work on Morrison's album having been noticed, he was asked to add his guitar work to 'Power Of Love' from former Spooky Tooth member Gary Wright's 1975 solo album 'The Dream Weaver', which kick-started a parallel career in session work, playing with Dan Hartman, The Beau Brummels, The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, Tony Williams and Nicolette Larson over the next few years. With Bob James replacing Hagar on vocals and Jim Alcivar added on keyboards, two more Montrose albums were released, with 'Warner Bros. Presents Montrose!' coming out in 1975 and 'Jump On It' in 1976. Montrose then shifted direction and released a solo album, the all-instrumental 'Open Fire' in 1978, produced by former band-mate Edgar Winter. In 1979 he formed Gamma with vocalist Davey Pattison, bringing Jim Alcivar with him, and recruiting Alan Fitzgerald on bass and Skip Gillette on drums. Gamma had more of a progressive rock edge compared to the hard rock of Montrose, and produced three consecutively titled albums before splitting up. In 1983 Montrose played lead guitar on '(She Is A) Telepath' from Paul Kantner's album 'Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra', and a couple of years later he joined Seattle's Rail (winners of MTV's first Basement Tapes video competition), as he was looking for a new band and one of Rail's guitarists, Rick Knotts, had recently left. For the few months that he was with them, they were billed as 'Rail featuring Montrose' or 'Ronnie & Rail', and they played a set of half Rail favorites and half Montrose songs, before splitting amicably at the end of their tour. He continued to record through the 1980's and 1990's, releasing solo albums including 'The Speed Of Sound' in 1988 and 'Music From Here' in 1994, as well as reforming Gamma to record 'Gamma 4' in 2000. During his 2009 tour, Montrose revealed that he had fought prostate cancer for the previous two years but was healthy once again, and he continued to tour until, on 03 March 2012 he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was originally assumed to be the result of his prostate cancer, but the San Mateo County Coroner's Office confirmed the guitarist had taken his own life. It was a sad end to what most people would consider to be a rich and fulfilling life, but at least we have his many recordings as a reminder of what a great guitarist he was. 

Track listing 

Disc One
01 Wild Night (from 'Tupelo Honey' by Van Morrison 1971)
02 Saga Of The Blue Beaver (from 'Gandharva' by Beaver And Krause 1971)
03 We've Got Ways to Keep High (from 'Victoria' by Victoria Domoalgoski 1971)
04 Black Train (from 'Buddy Bolden' unreleased album by Kendell Kardt 1971)
05 Lovin' Man (from 'Sawbuck' by Sawbuck 1972)
06 Rock 'n' Roll Boogie Woogie Blues (from 'They Only Come Out At Night' by 

                                                                                              The Edgar Winter Group 1972)
07 If You Need Me (from 'Insane Asylum' by Kathi McDonald 1973)
08 Power Of Love (from 'Dream Weaver' by Gary Wright 1975)
09 Down To The Bottom (from 'The Beau Brummels' by The Beau Brummels 1975)
10 The Party's In The Back Room (from 'Images' by Dan Hartman 1976)

Disc Two
11 Teach Your Daughter (from 'Safe In Their Homes' by The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils 1976)
12 Open Fire (from 'The Joy Of Flying' by Tony Williams 1978)
13 Just In The Nick Of Time (from 'In The Nick Of Time' by Nicolette Larson 1979)
14 Trouble (from 'Two Years In A Padded Cell' by Earth Quake 1979)
15 Dirty Work (from 'Lauren Wood' by Lauren Wood 1979)
16 Soldier (from 'No Heroes' by Jamie Sheriff 1980)
17 (She Is A) Telepath (from 'Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra' by Paul Kantner 1983)
18 Whatever It Takes (from 'Uptown' by The Neville Brothers 1987)
19 Blood Alley 152 (from 'Guitar Speak II' by Various Artists 1988)
20 Tighter (from 'High Heel Heaven' by Heist 1989)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

Johnny Winter - ...and on guitar (1977)

John Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas, on February 23, 1944, two years before his brother Edgar made an apperance in 1946. They were encouraged in their musical pursuits by their father John Dawson Winter Jnr, who was also a musician who played saxophone and guitar and sang at churches and weddings, and they appeared on a local children's show with Johnny playing ukulele when he was 10 years old. His recording career began at the age of 15, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released 'School Day Blues' on a Houston record label, and after recording a single with Roy Head And The Traits, he released his first album 'The Progressive Blues Experiment' in 1968. His big break came at the end of that year, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York City. Representatives of Columbia Records were at the concert, and after Winter played and sang B.B. King's 'It's My Own Fault' to loud applause, they snapped him up with reportedly the largest advance in the history of the recording industry at that time — $600,000. Winter's first Columbia album 'Johnny Winter' was recorded and released in 1969, using the same backing musicians who played on 'The Progressive Blues Experiment', plus blues legend Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. With brother Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter recorded his third album 'Second Winter' in Nashville in 1969, with the two-disc album having just three sides of music, with the fourth side being blank. In 1970 the original blues trio disbanded, after Edgar left to record a solo album 'Entrance', and to form Edgar Winter's White Trash, an R&B/jazz-rock group, with Johnny playing guitar on both 'Entrance', and White Trash's debut album. He then formed a new band with the remnants of The McCoys who had just split, nabbing guitarist Rick Derringer, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and Derringer's brother Randy Z on drums, with the original name of Johnny Winter And The McCoys being shortened to Johnny Winter And. 

Winter's momentum was throttled when he sank into heroin addiction during the Johnny Winter And days, but after seeking treatment for and recovering from the addiction, he returned to the music scene with the release of the prophetically titled 'Still Alive and Well', a basic blend of blues and hard rock, whose title track was written by Rick Derringer. In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters, and in 1974 he got his chance, when renowned blues artists and their younger brethren came together to honor Waters with a concert featuring many blues classics, and which was the start of an admired TV series 'Soundstage', with 'Blues Summit In Chicago' being the first episode. In 1977 he took Waters into the studio to record 'Hard Again' for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia, and it was this record that kick-started the resurgence of Waters' career, with this and their subsequent two albums together producing three Grammy Awards. Throughout his career Winter has helped out friends and relatives on their records, contributing to solo albums by Rick Derringer and former White Trash singer Jerry LaCroix, as well as playing with James Cotton in 1970, who returned the favour by contributing harmonica to the 'Hard Again' sessions seven years later.

 

Track listing

01 She Moves Me (from 'Taking Care Of Business' by James Cotton Blues Band 1970)
02 Tobacco Road (from 'Entrance' by Edgar Winter 1970)
03 I've Got News For You (from 'Edgar Winter's White Trash' by Edgar Winter's White Trash 1971)
04 Funny Boy (from 'The Second Coming' by Jerry LaCroix 1974)
05 Skyscraper Blues (from 'Spring Fever' by Rick Derringer 1975)
06 King Tut Strut (from 'Temple Of Birth' by Jeremy Steig 1975)
07 Reggae Rock & Roll (from 'Hit It Again' by Tornader 1977)
08 Mannish Boy (from 'Hard Again' by Muddy Waters 1977)