A dose of Americana this afternoon – Ronnie Montrose in concert at Bluebird Theatre in Denver and recorded on June 12, 1999.
Some thirteen years after his death, the name Ronnie Montrose is sadly, fading from view. As one of the leading lights in American Hard Rock from the early 70s, he’s been a huge influence among rock guitarists and his band Montrose was often cited as “Americas Answer to Led Zeppelin”.
Certainly, his list of collaborations reads like a who’s who of Americana; everyone from Boz Scaggs to Edgar Winter.
In late 1968, he started playing in a band called Sawbuck with Mojo Collins (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 toured and opened for major acts. At the end of 1970 and beginning of 1971, they were recording their first and only studio album, Sawbuck. During this time, Rubinson had 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. Both Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Morrison, but both did appear on two songs on the Sawbuck album, which was released in 1972. Montrose and Church also played on the song “Listen to the Lion“, recorded during the Tupelo Honey sessions and released on Morrison’s next album Saint Dominic’s Preview (1972).
Montrose played briefly with Boz Scaggs before joining the Edgar Winter Group in 1972. He then recruited Chuck Ruff, which essentially ended the band Sawbuck. For Winter’s third album, They Only Come Out at Night (1972), which included the hit singles “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride“, Montrose recorded electric guitar, acoustic 12-string, and mandolin.
He formed his own band, Montrose, in 1973. It featured Sammy Hagar on vocals. That incarnation of the band released two albums with Warner Bros. Records, Montrose (1973) and Paper Money (1974), before Hagar left to pursue a solo career. Although the liner notes for the CD edition of Paper Money said that he was invited to play lead guitar for Mott the Hoople after he left the Edgar Winter Group, Montrose said that it never happened and was just a rumor. He also added his guitar work to Gary Wright‘s song, “Power of Love”, on the 1975 album, The Dream Weaver.
He continued to record through the 1980s and 1990s, releasing solo albums including The Speed of Sound (1988), Music from Here (1994), and Bearings (2000), as well as another Montrose album titled Mean (1987) and a fourth Gamma album Gamma 4 (2000). Montrose recorded a rousing interpretation of the Beatles song “Love You To“, that included a rare Montrose vocal performance, on his album Territory in 1986.
Montrose appeared on Sammy Hagar’s solo album Marching to Mars (1997) along with original Montrose members bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi on the song “Leaving the Warmth of the Womb”. The original lineup also reformed to play as a special guest at several Hagar concerts in summer 2004 and 2005. He also performed regularly from 2001 until 2011 with a Montrose lineup featuring Keith St. John on lead vocals and a rotating cast of veteran hard rock players on bass and drums. In 2011, he formed the ‘Ronnie Montrose Band’ with Randy Scoles on vocals, Dan McNay on bass, and Steve Brown on drums, playing music from his entire career, including both Montrose and Gamma songs. This lineup was captured in his final released work, the concert DVD Ronnie Montrose: Live at the Uptown.
During his 2009 tour, Montrose revealed that he had fought prostate cancer for the previous two years but was healthy once again; he continued to tour until his death in 2012.
Thanks Wikipedia.
If you didn’t know before, you know now. As you’ll notice, Hard Rock goes rather well with lunch – so I would crank it up if I were you and get ready for the weekend.
