The speed in which the song is delivered is not about "showing off," it's about adding a tremendous amount of technical detail - built from the original riffs - but nearly impossible to replicate. It's artistic, and I'd be willing to argue, genius.
I've seen Monte Montgomery at least 20 times at the Saxon Pub, and there's nothing fake abou this guy. He's one of the best acoustic shows you'll ever see anywhere.
Monte is amazing! He and his mom,Maggie used to jam at my wife's apartment in 81. He was 13 , had a baby blue strat with a small battery run amp . You could see the picking skills then and he just improved from there!
The fact that Monte is not more famous than he is shows that talent doesn't always equal fame. he doesn't just play a guitar, he PLAYS it. His voice is really good too. Just amazing.
Monte can flat out play. His skill and complexity is far beyond most guitar players. This piece is superb...it makes you sit back and say Wow. I like the fact that he remains low-key in the business.
In 1993, Marcus R. and I sat at the bar at Cibolo Creek Country Club with Denny behind the bar... 5 feet to the right was Monte playing this song. Only 4 of us in the building. Just another warm weekday summer night at the CCCC. We knew how great Monte was... the rest of the world (and guitar players everywhere) would soon find out the same.
Monte's unbelievable. I think he's much more impressive when he plays with his band, though. When he plays alone, his rhythm's not great, which is understandable, because he does so much with his guitar. Also, his bassist and drummer are fantastic, and seeing them together is an incredible experience. Buy their music and help get them out there!
WOW makes me wanna burn every guitar I have ever touched. Seriously The MASTER and as always Monte.I have been a fan for 10 yrs. and I still can't get over how Awesome his talent is. Some were born to play.......
As a guitarist/songwriter I can appreciate what's happening here. If he were "mailing-in" a song he wrote, I would be concerned. But, in this case...Monte is showing his virtuosity and interpretation of a classic. That I, for one don't want to hear the same way it's been played for the millionth time! He gets a pass, and a cudos from me on this one! And, there is no "best" guitarist...only better! If there were a best, there would be no need for us to play anymore!
Yes, Knopfler does make it cry and sing and no one will beat the original, but you don't watch a MM video to see straight up Knopfler cover. It is what it is and I can appreciate different interpretations.
@@Whalers68 there's a lot of covers I realy like, this one I just don't. Just me though, I don't set my opinion as any kind of a rule. SRV covers of Hendrix I like a lot even Billy Idols LA Woman I like, even though Idol and The Doors are way different.
Total fun, and pure genius... Knopfler would see the humour here. It's like that moment in 'Back to the Future' when Michael J Fox let's rip with the cherry red Gibson 335 and the crowd aren't ready for it yet:-).
Exactly that, he's in the zone alright, the whole time. He's in his own magnetic circle not many guitarist have even been in. He's in with the few very best.
Watching all the vids of Monte on RU-vid makes for a wonderful evening. His stage presence and sense of humor with his interaction with the crowd make him very unique, on top of his playing style. With his Bassist and Drummer he is great, on his own playing lead, rhythm, bass and percussion during the songs, makes you just sit back and say how the hell did he just do that! It is awesome to be able to find someone this unique and entertaining to listen to and enjoy. Looking forward to new posts.
I produced this clip. (You see a reference to one of my websites at the end.) The video was weak and I had to enhance it to make it visible enough to watch Monte play. The audio from that show was so poor that I took a sb recording from a different show and match up with slight sync adjustments. There are a few hiccups. Some complained that Monte's timing was off, but it was just my editing. Monte asked me to remove this clip from RU-vid, so I did. suizo92 did not have permission to post this.
JesusChrist !!! Wes , You are blessed with huge musicality and Your playing technique is mind blowing !!! You are a one man band doing the job of two guitars,vocals,bass and drums simultanously !!! And the whole thing is GROOVY & TIGHT as can be. WOW Admiration & Greets , Gordon
Phenomenal technical skill. Full respect. But Knopfler makes the song come alive in an entirely different way. With MK, each note is individually crafted to his taste. And mine.
Like the version or not, the dude has some major chops! Even that flamenco RH bit he does at the very end is really difficult to do well and takes a lot of time to get clean and clear. Poppin groove too.
I am the creator of this video and would like to explain it. I had some very rough video of Monte playing this tune from back in this era of Monte and put it through multiple stages of noise reduction and enhancements in order to attempt to have a clearer view of Monte's playing. Then I took a soundboard recording from another show during that era and did what I could to try and sync them together. Sometimes this syncing is a bit off. Originally it was posted on my previous RU-vid channel and my friend Monte asked me to take it down, so I did.
WondersOfMonaVie Any particular reason why Monte wanted this video out of the thousands of him on RU-vid taken down? I've seen him live quite a few times and he never played this (Next time I'm going to wear a shirt or bring a sign saying "MONTE, Play 'SULTANS'!!!") This is the only recording of him doing this song that I know of.
I don't think you'll get Monte to ever play this again. The main reason he gave me for wanting this video taken offline was because the video portion was shot in a small club when he was starting out where they paid him next to nothing and the crowd talked while he was playing and other such bad memories. Then when I posted this originally, some of the comments were about his "bad timing" which actually isn't his fault, but more due to the way I edited it trying to sync audio and video from two different shows. This is why I was compelled to post some background on this.
I am crushed :( as well as baffled as to why he would refuse to play this song. His rendition here is brilliant. He has a much bigger audience now and I can only imagine them going nuts over this.
A lot of people enjoyed this, but he stopped playing it years ago. (I know because I've seen him play live 199 times.) Perhaps partially due to the fact that he would prefer people requesting his songs instead of covers. Songwriter pride. Yes, there are like a thousand Monte videos on here now. But in the past, there were not very many, which is why I created this one. I was the first to put Monte on RU-vid with my previous channel. So at that time Monte knew to talk to me about what he wanted seen. And he was picky about being seen in good quality. But after someone told Daryl Hall to watch Monte play Sara Smile on my old channel, Daryl called him to do Live from Daryl's House (episode #9 as seen on here). So Monte told me after that event that he wouldn't complain about RU-vid ever again. And about that same time, it became a thing for a lot of people to start uploading Monte on here.
I LOVED THIS, If I wanted to hear just another note-for-note rendition, I can't imagine anyone improving on MK&DS. This is an interpretation, and I can understand anyone who doesn't GET IT, MUSIC IS LIKE THAT; I whish I hadda nikle for everytime I was somewhere an somebody said, OH MAN, you gotta hear this ! ! ! And it didn't move me a single bit, AND VICEVERSA
Pretty much agree with Lochlanach, beginning with his first comma.I wonder if Montgomery is actually trying to flow, or if he's (as it appears) merely punching the clock.
There 's not one of the top ten guitar players in Rolling Stones last list that could play this song this way. So who's the best guitar player i the world.? Monte Mongomery.!
Monte's version is quite hyper, and though he doesn't have to light-speed at warp 2 through the piece, he does an excellent job showing what's possible. I find this version engaging. And my mood would determine when I would prefer Monte over Mark.
WTF.....I love this cat. Mainly because I'm not even close to that technicality. As a matter of relativity, BB King could hit one note....you would know who he was and what he thought....which changed your life. Holy Shit this cat is so fucking good...My God.
@LochlanachViking Yes, it appears that he has 100% of Monte Montgomery's technical skills, and 100% of Monte Montgomery's soul. He's very good at being himself :)
