James Montgomery

[Bruce Steinberg <bruces@xxxxxxx>]

        Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 18:16:28 -0500
        To: Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        From: skt2@xxxxxxx (Rod Thomas)
        
        Well Harp People, it's about time I jumped in and said Hi.  I've been
        lurking since Sept.94.

                                <...>

        I picked up the Harp about 20 years ago after my older brother bought
        a John Mayall album called The Turning Point.  <...> My biggest
        influences then were James Montgomery and Magic Dick, with a dash of
        John Mayall and Paul Butterfeild for good measure.

                                <...>

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Welcome to HARP-L, Rod.  Nice to see James Montgomery's name
mentioned on this list, for the first time that I can recall.
(When I saw you mention him and Magic Dick in the same sentence
as "biggest influences," I wasn't surprised to see your area
code's still 617. ;)

I shot and designed the covers for both his "First Time Out" and
"High Roller" albums, and spent a lot of time around Boston
working with him and his band;  it was great doing a package for
another harp player for a change. :)

James was originally from Detroit, and it showed in both his
playing style and musical tastes;  he could play Chicago blues
all night long, but was just as likely to throw in a stone Motown
arrangement of the Detroit Emeralds' "Show Time" anytime, too.

I actually saw him again playing down on the Cape a few years
back, and when Bluestime came through here recently, Magic Dick
said James is still active back there.  Do you ever see him live
anywhere around?  Tx, B*