Deja vu for B.B. King opener
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008
Nearly four years ago, Kory Montgomery opened for B. B. King at the blues legend’s annual hometown festival in Indianola, Miss.
Next Sunday, he’ll open again for 82-year-old King, this time at The Auditorium in Eureka Springs.
Twice opening for King is a lucky deal, admits Montgomery, a Rogers native who is all of 19 years old.
Montgomery, a guitarist and singer, was the second of three opening acts for King during the June 2004 festival.
“It was really my first big gig,” says Montgomery, who now lives in Los Angeles.
After the festival, Montgomery went to Club Ebony, an Indianola staple that has hosted Ray Charles and James Brown. There, he watched King perform just a few feet away from where he sat. He also hung out with King and met Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a 30-year-old bluesman.
Also in June 2004, Montgomery played at the Eureka Springs Blues Festival, in a park across the street from The Auditorium, where Buddy Guy performed.
Montgomery got his first guitar at age 10, a Christmas present from his father. At 12, he won second place in a talent show, his first time on stage.
Since then, he’s been on many stages and recorded an album, Five Past Ten, and two demo albums.
After graduating from Rogers High School in 2006, Montgomery went on the road with some friends and performed for several months. Then, he looked for something else to help him grow as a musician.
He attended the Grammy Foundation’s Grammy Camp, where he heard about the Musicians Institute, a school for contemporary music. He moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in its Guitar Institute of Technology, graduating from the year-long program last August.
While in Los Angeles, he formed his Q Revue band with four other guys: Jason Thomason, guitar; Mike Officer, keyboards, guitar, vocals; Max Kutzman, bass; and Andrew Hynes, drums.
In school, he learned about harmony, how to read and write music, and about the music industry. Montgomery’s sound has expanded from straight blues.
Last fall, the band recorded a six-song demo of original music. Montgomery wrote all the parts to the songs. He calls the collection “like funk, blues, rock, soul — all mixed together.”
“It’s a little different, but it’s got a really good vibe to it,” he says.
Some of those can be heard at www. myspace. com / kory montgomery 00.
The band is trying to get on the road as much as possible. During this tour, they will perform in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Among those performances will be a Saturday night show at the Green Door in Fayetteville and a matinee show Jan. 27 at Chelsea’s in Eureka Springs before the show later that night at The Auditorium. The next weekend, Montgomery and Officer will compete as a duo in the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis.
“It’s just a matter of time until someone sees us or something happens to take it to the next step,” he says.
In the meantime, Montgomery is thrilled to be opening for King again. “He just has so much passion for what he does,” Montgomery says. King is known for playing 200 to 300 dates a year during his career. Montgomery and a friend recently saw him at the Hollywood Bowl. Actually, they were walking around and heard him before they saw him, and they stopped in their tracks. “To grab an audience like that just blows me away,” he says. “It’s what we all want to do.”
THE KING Geoffrey Dunbar has been working for about five years to bring King to Eureka Springs. He’d seen King play small clubs when attending college in Florida. In the early 1980 s, he visited friends in Mississippi and saw King play at some Delta clubs, often times being just feet away from the musician. “It’s mesmerizing when you can see somebody like that,” he says. “Just sitting there and watching what he can do with that instrument.” In the late 1980 s and early 1990 s, Dunbar produced private concerts for Northwest Arkansas corporations, and King was among the entertainers. He knew he wanted to bring this legend back to the area. King, a 14-time Grammy winner, has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.
Dunbar, who also arranged the Willie Nelson show in October, says King’s management had talked to Nelson’s about The Auditorium. They liked the hall’s atmosphere and history — John Phillip Sousa played the opening performance in 1929.
“You’ll never see him in such a small venue,” he says. “And when he cranks up Lucille, it’s like you’re in a big arena.”
About 50 years ago, King’s guitar — and every one since — got the name Lucille after King rescued it from a fire at a dance hall in Twist, Ark. Two men had been fighting over a woman named Lucille and knocked over a kerosene lamp, causing the blaze.
Dunbar had King booked two or three other times, but his tour route changed or bigger venues — like casinos — offered him dates.
“I was almost in shock when they gave it to us,” Dunbar says.
Dunbar likes a traditional, simple blues style, one with raw emotion. That’s what he hears from King.
“I’ve got about as much rhythm as a door. But when I’m listening to B. B., I’m moving.”
B. B. King Opening act: Kory Montgomery 8 p. m. Jan. 27, The Auditorium, 36 S. Main St., Eureka Springs Admission: $ 116. 50 (888 ) 855-7823 www. ticketbound. com
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