James Montgomery – 2018

After launching his career from Boston in the early 1970s, the bluesman moved his home base to Rhode Island and continued his international career and philanthropic efforts for the benefit of musicians and veterans groups.

Before he ever left his native Detroit to head east for college, James Montgomery had already established himself as a major player in the midwest with the Cosmic Expanding Blues Band working side-by-side on the same scene which produced other future stars including Bob Seger, Iggy Pop and the MC5. While attending Boston University in 1970, the singer and blues harp player formed the group which would bring him worldwide recognition as one of the greatest bluesmen of his generation – The James Montgomery Band. In the aftermath of the Boss-Town sound of the Psychedelic era, James, along with The J. Geils Band and Aerosmith, helped reestablish Boston as a major music center in the early ‘70s and he was signed to Capricorn Records, the home of the Allman Brothers Band. First Time Out  in 1973 was a hard driving, hard rocking album which introduced the nation to the band’s high energy approach to the blues. 1974’s High Roller, with the legendary Tom Dowd as a co-producer, continued along the same lines and the album’s single, “I Can’t Stop (No, No, No),” became a college radio favorite. A switch to Island Records in 1976 saw the band fusing their Northern blues with the Southern musical gumbo of Louisiana for their self-titled album produced by New Orleans master Allen Toussaint. It was their biggest-selling album and reached #9 on Billboard’s album airplay chart. Since then, he became a Rhode Islander in the late 1980s, he has released three more studio albums and several live packages. He is also a philanthropist of note working for more than 30 years with organizations advocating for musicians health care and veterans groups. He currently serves on the Tune In & Tune Up Health Awareness Committee of the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.