10-5-2025
"Montoya is a show-stopper...heartfelt singing and merciless guitar with a wicked icy burn. He is one of the truly gifted blues artists of his generation." – Living Blues
"One of the most prodigious and gifted electric bluesmen on the planet - a deeply soulful singer and incendiary guitarist [with] a seemingly endless penchant for invention." – AllMusic
Coco Montoya, the award-winning guitar virtuoso and soul-deep singer, says "Albert Collins taught me to ’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ And the old Willie Dixon adage, "Blues is truth" also perfectly describes the sering contemporary blues-rock vibe of Coco's show-stopping intensity.
Coco earned his status as a master guitarist and soul-powered vocalist through years of paying his dues as a sideman with Albert Collins and then with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, before launching his solo career in 1993. Five years of constant touring with Collins and ten years with Mayall turned him into a monster player and dynamic performer.
Since his first solo album in 1995, which won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist, Montoya’s endlessly inventive guitar work and passionate, hard-hitting vocals have kept him at the top of the blues world. With his new Alligator Records album, "Writing On The Wall" (his sixth for the label), Montoya delivers what he is already calling one of the best records he’s ever made. For the very first time on Alligator, he decided to bring his road-tested band: noted keyboardist and songwriter Jeff Paris (Keb’ Mo’, Bill Withers), bassist Nathan Brown, and drummer Rena Beavers into the studio with him. Between the camaraderie of the long-time bandmates and the sheer talent of all involved, the results have left Coco, in his words, “over the moon.”
Coco is as excited as he’s ever been to perform these new songs live with his burning-hot band. His well-earned reputation as an eye-popping live performer precedes him.
Vintage Guitar states, “Coco keeps getting better and better. He plays with fire and passion rarely seen in this day and age.”
Billboard declares, “In a world of blues guitar pretenders, Coco Montoya is the real McCoy. He exudes power and authenticity. Be prepared to get scorched by the real thing.”
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