Sidney Bechet said;

"Music's a thing that you gotta trust: you gotta mean it, and you gotta treat it gentle. The music, it's the road. There's good things alongside it, and there's miseries. You stop by the way and you can't ever be sure what you're gonna find waiting. But the music itself, the road itself--there's no stopping that. It goes on all the time. There's no one ever came back who can't tell you that."

In the beginning there was The Beatles and it was good. And they said, “Lo, look back and you will see the three pillars upon which we stand; Chuck Berry, Little Richard and The Everly Brothers.” And it was good. And we asked, “Who will we follow when you have left us?” And they begot Harry Nilsson, Badfinger and James Taylor. They then said unto us, “Take this album Revolver and create thee countless copies to feed the millions.” And the one album produced Oasis, Spoon, Todd Rundgren and millions of pop songs to fill the airwaves. And then they said, “Take this album Sgt. Pepper and create amongst you countless moody, overproduced musical epics to fill the nights of lonely boys and friendless critics.”

And so it came to pass.

And soon the land was full shore to shore and country to country. There was Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd, Kinks and Monkees, Nirvana and Arctic Monkeys.

Time passed and there was a growing unrest as the land was filled with the pestilence of Britney, Aguilera and Beyonce. And the people, in their hunger, returned to the Old Testament to replenish their souls. Once again they found the voices of Ray Charles and Ike Turner, T-Bone Walker and Robert Johnson. They sought the council of The Three Kings; Albert, Freddie and B.B.

From the desert returned the wise words of Woody Guthrie and Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan and Ramblin Jack Elliot. From the city came Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme, Miles Davis and Nat King Cole.

The songs of old once again filled their souls and they rejoiced.

And it was good.

It's that time of year again so I am reprinting my piece on MLK Day.


Well, I made it to another Monday. Today is a national holiday; Martin Luther King Day. Unfortunately, I am still working and it seems like everyone else is, too. Poor Dr. King, thirty years gone and he still can't get no respect.

It's like when you drive through a strange city. You always see a Martin Luther King Blvd. exit but next to the name on the sign, in parenthesis, will be another name for the road. Just can't give it up. It's always some expressway that cuts through the slums; MLK (15th St.), MLK (Simmons St.), MLK (whatever it was named in 1969 that the stupid, redneck city council couldn't quite give up). I bet down south you can find MLK (Robert E Lee Ave).

Where does this leave Jesse Jackson? All he has to look forward to is a hyphon road. Probably "Jesse Jackson-MLK-15th St". Or maybe "Dead Black Leaders Blvd-15th St". Sheesh.

In London, they have the perfect solution; they change the name of the street every block. Plenty to go around. You could use up all the great ethnic leaders and barely make it out of downtown. All the great white leaders already have streets named after them (and schools, and parks , and libraries, and states...) so when we run out of names we can start directly on our prized pop culture icons like Elvis Presley or John Lennon.. Maybe we could have the street intersections tell a little history. Michael Jackson Blvd could intersect Marie Presley Ave... which runs into Nicolas Cage Speedway dumping us into Patricia Arquette Road.

And every street could be six blocks or less from the Kevin Bacon National Interstate Highway System.

And yes, I can do it; Martin Luther King was in "I am Curious Yellow" with Lena Nyman who was in "Picassos Aventyr" with Lena Olin, who was in "Mystery Men" with William H Macy who was in "Murder in the First" with Kevin Bacon.

Whew.

Or, the other King; Elvis was in "Change of Habit" with Mary Tyler Moore who was in "Ordinary People" with Elizabeth McGovern who was in "She's Having a Baby" with Kevin Bacon.

I can even do; Joe Montgomery was in "Born on the Fourth of July" with Tom Cruise who was in "A Few Good Men" with Kevin Bacon.

Easy Peasy.

It is time for the annual Austin Music Poll.  Please take a few moments to vote at;

 Austin Music Poll

There are a lot of talented musicians in Austin.  I would love for you to vote for me anyway (songwriter division).  Tell your friends, tell bulletin boards, whatever. 

Thanks, Joe

p.s.  I will base my acceptance speech on this one by Jerry Seinfeld
p.p.s.  If you haven't been to Austin lately and don't know what else to vote for, may I recommend a few;

AUSTIN BAND OF THE YEAR:  Spoon or Okkervile River
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
BLUES:  Jimmy Vaughn 
FOLK:  Patty Griffin
COVER BAND:  The Eggmen
ELECTRIC GUITAR:  Gorf Morlix or Eric Johnson
ACOUSTIC GUITAR:  Monte Montgomery or me
BASS:  Bruce Hughes
KEYBOARDS:  Ian Mclagan
SONGWRITER:  Joe Montgomery
LIVE MUSIC VENUE:  Cactus Cafe
ACOUSTIC VENUE:  Cactus Cafe
ALL AGES VENUE:  Central Market North
RECORD STORE:  Waterloo or Cheapo
INSTRUMENT/EQUIPMENT STORE:  South Austin Music
RADIO STATION:  KGSR  (americana) or KUT (eclectic)
RADIO PROGRAM 
Show: Eclectica
Deejay Name:  John Aielli
Station: KUT

Here’s something that you probably don’t know.

When you visit any website, you leave a trail of electronic bread crumbs that show where you came from. Specifically, I can see what search phrases are used to bring people to this site. Very Big Brotherish, I know. Just about everyone finds this website through predictable searches like “Joe Montgomery”, “Montgomery songwriter”, “Austin songwriter” or some such.

Just about everyone.

There are a few people who end up here while searching for the strangest things..

I repeat; The Strangest Things.

Here are November’s top 11 “odd” search phrases;


Harry Dean Statton

morai pattern

joe my love home page

cancel message myspace

melodica through an amp

ride a mail train you tube dylan

every freakin day and every freakin night

bloody cat toss

joe montgomery married

Lena Nyman free sex video

hat railroad cap worn by john lennon


I hope this site was able to help them in their quest…

When I was very young I saw a show on television that was unlike anything I had ever seen before.  It freaked my unformed mind.  T.V. wasn't like what I saw that Saturday.  I have yet to see anything as weird on television since.  I have searched for evidence that the show existed for decades.  Even after the internet made EVERYTHING accessable, it was nowhere... a ghost.  Ahhh, but now we have youtube and Google video.  Content out the wazoo.  I made my annual search yesterday and whammy, there it was.  57,000 people on Google had already watched it before I rediscovered it.  It was dated, scratchy, unwatchably antiquated technologically but it was still what I remembered.  So, here it is.  I put it on my site for everyone to see.  It is probably better to see it at Youtube since you can size it larger but watch it here if you must.  Youtube version is here .  From 1969, black and white, from Jim Henson before we ever met a muppet, is The Cube.  It is 55 minutes long and hard to watch but go for it.  And don't worry if you slash your wrist after viewing... it's not blood, it's only strawberry jam.

P.S.  I read a comment online from someone else who was a repeat viewer.  He said it was unwatchable to all his adult friends BUT his young kids sucked it in just like he did when he was their age.  So, grab as many children as you can find and lets start warping those brains.  It's never too early to infuence the next great generation.

Well, the new trailer for Iron Man is out.  Amazingly, I am thrilled about this.  I didn't see it coming.  I had no interest in the movie but when I heard the trailer was released, I had an immediate adrenaline rush and had a memory flash to my childhood.

I had all my Marvel comics arranged alphabetically and numerically in a chest of drawers.  It took up the whole chest.  My clothes were in milk crates in the corner.  I had them all; Spider Man, X-Men, Daredevil, Dr. Strange... every freakin' one.

I was a geek.

I would reread every one, making sure not to crease or fold any page.  I would ride my bike by the drug stores after my morning paper route and pull out the new comics from the bundle in front of the drug store before they even opened (I would always leave payment).  I would let all the other geeks at school know the plots before they had even had a chance to visit the store.  

It might just have been the happiest time of my childhood.

If you are getting this blog through RSS feed and can't view it from my homepage,
You can see the trailer here.   

It stars Robert Downey Jr. , Gwyneth Paltrow, Hillary Swank and Jeff Bridges  (hot names that will send my web hits flying).