Bending the strings and pounding the ivories

It’s going to be a blistering night of the blues in Peterborough when guitarist Coco Montoya and piano player Victor Wainwright come to town. They’ll be performing a double bill at an Elite Blues Series presentation at Showplace Performance Centre in Peterborough on Friday, November 7th.

Coco Montoya – “Smoldering blues and southern-fried rock ‘n’ roll”

Coco Montoya is best known for the years he spent as guitarist in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, but he actually started his musical career as a drummer.

Born in Santa Monica in California as Henry Montoya, Coco played drums for a local rock band in area clubs during the mid-’70s. A friend of Coco’s who owned a local nightclub hosted legendary blues guitarist Albert Collins — known as “The Ice Man” and “The Master of the Telecaster” — and invited Coco to sit in as Albert’s drummer. Albert took an immediate liking to Coco and, at the end of the gig, asked Coco for his phone number.

“He said ‘You never know, I might need a drummer some day,” Coco recalls.

Three months later, Albert hired Coco for a tour of the Pacific Northwest. After the tour ended, Coco became Albert’s protegé and he learned the secrets of Albert’s “icy hot” style of blues guitar. He explains that he didn’t take lessons from Albert; it was more like absorbing the techniques from hanging out in hotel rooms.

“He would grab his guitar and I would pick up one and we’d play,” Coco says. “I just learned by listening, all by ear. I just play it the way I hear it. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it’. He taught me to tap into an inner strength. I don’t know all the licks in the world, but I know the ones I can use to express happiness or sadness or emotion.”

A self-taught player, Coco plays his guitar left-handed and upside down like another legendary blues guitarist, Albert King.

“I’m a left-handed person, so I always picked up right-handed guitars upside down,” he explains. “I didn’t know any better until it was way too late. I never had a lesson in my life. I would watch other guitar players to catch what they did. I would wait for that one moment when they would do it, and just stare at them and try and remember where their hand was, where their fingers were.”

From 1976 until 1984, Coco had lost some of his enthusiasm for playing music and worked as a bartender in Los Angeles.

“I was pretty much out of the music business and I really didn’t want to go back into it,” he recalls. “I had been a drummer and my career was over. I didn’t have what it took to continue and progress. So for me it was just about playing guitar during weekend jams and having a good time. I had a day job and I was actually making money.”

Coco’s musical life turned around in 1984. British blues godfather John Mayall — whose former band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers included musicians like Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Peter Green in the 1960s — was celebrating his birthday in a bar where Coco was performing. When he found out Mayall was in the audience, Coco played a cover of “All Your Love” — the Otis Rush song that John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers had recorded in 1966.

Mayall was impressed by the performance and later phoned Coco, offering to take him on the road as lead guitarist in the newly reformed Bluesbreakers. Skeptical, Coco actually hung up on Mayall when he received the call.

“I was working at a British pub in Laurel Canyon in Hollywood as a bartender,” he explains. “A lot of English roadies and musicians would come in there. Jeff Beck was in there all the the time, and so was Charlie Watts and even Tom Jones. I got to know these guys a little bit, and they knew I was a blues fanatic at a time when blues wasn’t all that popular. I thought they were playing a game on me, so I hung up on him.”

When he realized the offer was genuine, Coco jumped at the opportunity — despite the enormous pressure of filling a spot once held by Clapton and Green. Coco spent the next 10 years touring non-stop, proving himself to be a world-class guitar master in one of the most renowned blues bands in existence.

“I would never be doing what I’m doing now if I hadn’t gotten that phone call from John Mayall,” Coco says.

After three studio records with Mayall as a member of the Bluesbreakers, Coco decided in 1993 to strike out on his own. He was signed to Blind Pig Records and released three critically acclaimed discs, Gotta Mind To Travel, Ya Think I’d Know Better, and Just Let Go. He received national recognition when he was named the Blues Foundation’s Best New Blue Artist at the 1996 Blues Music Awards. In 2000, Coco signed with Alligator Records — the top blues label in the U.S. — and released three more records over seven years: Suspicion, Can’t Look Back, and Dirty Deal.

In 2009, Coco signed with Germany’s premier blues label, Ruf Records, where he released I Want It All Back in 2010 and his latest double record, Songs from the Road, earlier this year.

“This is an exciting journey,” said Coco. “To my fans who love my guitar, I say come to me with open ears. The guitar is still there, but it’s not the only voice I have. Listen to me as an artist who is growing and grow with me.”

Coco Montoya performs with his band Brant Leeper (keyboard, backing vocals), Nathan Brown (bass), and Rena Beavers (drums, backing vocals).

“Slow Blues For John Mayall” – Coco Montoya

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Victor Wainwright – “Boogie-woogie piano and deep soul”

Memphis singer and blues pianist Victor Wainwright is a dynamic and high-octane performer and crowd pleaser.

Backed by the WildRoots — a tight band that’s ablaze with jumping beats, lively saxophones, and some spine-tingling guitar work — Victor creates powerhouse blues and roots rock by playing his own unique style of “boogie piana”. He effortlessly pays frequent homage to past music greats, while simultaneously adding his own youthful excitement.

Born in Savannah, Georgia, Victor was influenced by his father and grandfather, both of whom were blues musicians. They were his early mentors, along with family friend Pinetop Perkins — an American blues pianist who played with some of the most influential blues and rock performers and who received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.

“I discovered music directly from my grandfather and father, live and in person,” Victor says. “I was put behind a drum kit at the age of two and I was banging on the piano shortly after that.”

Despite his strong musical background and talent, Victor didn’t dedicate himself to a career in music at first. Instead, he attended college in Florida and undertook an engineering degree at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University. He then relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked as an air traffic controller at Memphis International Airport.

In 2004, Victor met Stephen Dee — who has toured and recorded as bassist and vocalist with Hall and Oates, Todd Rundgren, and Pat Travers — when they were both on the bill of a benefit concert in Florida. Very impressed after hearing each other perform and finding that they had a common love for blues, R&B, and roots rock, they collaborated on an original recording project for Victor to pay homage to the music that influenced them. Stephen produced and co-wrote what would become Wainwright’s debut release, Piana from Savannah, in 2005.

After the release of the record and some outstanding live performances, they decided they had something special and forged a more enduring working relationship. Victor Wainwright and the WildRoots were born.

The WildRoots debut CD, Beale Street to the Bayou, was released in 2009 and earned them stellar reviews as well as top placements on blues charts. In 2011, they released Lit Up to similar acclaim. Both records helped Victor win the “Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year” at the Blues Music Award ceremonies in 2013 and 2014.

Along with Victor (lead vocals, piano, and organ) and Dees (bass and backing vocals), The WildRoots feature Billy Dean (drums, backing vocals), Nick Black (guitar, backing vocals), Patricia Ann Dees (tenor sax), Ray Guiser (tenor sax), and Charlie deChant (baritone sax).

“Big Dog’s Runnin’ This Town” – Victor Wainwright & The WildRoots