Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hello, how are you? I hope everything’s going really well in your world right now. Today’s guest is someone whose name you may not know, but if you’re a music fan, his work on drums and on guitar could be pretty familiar to you.
His name is Coco Montoya and he’s an award-winning blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Coco grew up as a drummer and was raised on rock and roll, but he became an outstanding blues guitarist after being taken under the wings of both Albert Collins and John Mayall. It’s been more than five decades that Coco’s been at it and his unique left-handed playing style has enabled him to bring funky Latin rhythms, roots rock and jazz into electric blues.
Coco joins us now to chat about his life growing up under the auspices of some of the greats. He tells us how luck played a huge part in his being discovered, how much he’s learned along the way and how he hates having his music pigeonholed. Hello.
Hello, thank you so much for joining us today. I want to talk about the new album, but I want you to share your incredible story of how you got to that place. Totally embarrassing.
Hey, I’d like to hear some embarrassing stuff too. Have you got some to share? Too much, in fact. Well, let’s wind it right back because you actually grew up as a drummer.
Yeah, I started out as a drummer. I think I got my first drum set when I was like 10 or 11. And that was the thing that turned me on the most was all these great drummers from the 40s and 50s, and especially the old rock and roll guys that I love so much.
Did you always want to be a musician? I think it was there. The attraction to it was there very early on. It’s something I never could leave alone.
Everything else was easy, you know, sports, all that. I wasn’t very much of a sports kid. It was easy for me to just turn my back on that.
When it came to music, it was always intense and emotional, which I think is the attraction. I believe that you were always surrounded by an enormous record collection at home. My parents are very into music and my mother loved to sing.
My dad used to play Weekend Warrior with drums and saxophone. So I had a wide variety, everything from Trivios Los Panchos, Yiddy Gourmet, you know, those kind of things, listening to that. Miguel Aceves Magia, which was a great singer from Mexico.
He was amazing. My first shot of real soulful music was him, even though I couldn’t understand the language. Who were your greatest influences? So many.
It’s amazing how you listen to stuff and then you go back. Johnny Otis, to me, was an incredible influence on me because he had a TV show. He had a very eclectic roster of people that he would have on his show.
It could be some completely country, up in the hills kind of guy, and then there’d be a jazz guy, and then there’d be these great straight ahead blues people. So as an influence, it’s quite easy to see how he was constantly doling out a lot of information musically. When did the switch come for you from drums to guitar? You know, I think it’s kind of one of those things where in my career as a musician, nothing was ever thought out.
When I left Albert Collins in the 70s, there was really nowhere else to go. Top 40 cover bands, to me, had passed me by. At that time, we were listening to disco and people like Tower of Power, stuff like Cold Blood.
And at that point, they were already playing way too sophisticated for me. I was never going to be somebody like David Garibaldi of Tower of Power, who I idolize. Incredible player.
You actually taught yourself how to play guitar in your early teens? Oh, yeah. Yeah, everything was self-taught. I didn’t take any lessons, probably because insecurities wouldn’t allow me to do that.
I found a way to do it in my own time, in my own way, to not be discouraged in any way. I’d be in the garage trying to learn how to play these instruments, and I would persevere no matter what. But then again, the shortcomings show up.
The fact that you didn’t take lessons, you know, you don’t know the technical terms of different things here and there. So there was a negative to that side, but also a positive to play what you truly feel as opposed to what you’re thinking. It just means more.
So what was playing for you during those early years? A way to self-express? Absolutely. Way to self-express. I think it was an amazing thing to hear Eric Clapton say the same thing and to realize that it was very true.
You know, in interviews, he was hard to get to interview. He was hard to open up to people. But if you listen to what he played musically and songs he wrote and the way he sang, Beautiful Singer, you hear all the emotional things that anybody that was really open and giving would have.
You know, just Eric wasn’t able to do it one-on-one. He was able to do it through his music, which is a way I followed. Let the music express what you’re feeling.
In 1969, you attended a concert to see Iron Butterfly and Credence Clearwater. Can you tell us what happened at that concert? Well, that’s where I was musically at. Iron Butterfly, I’ve seen them many times up in the Sunset Strip.
I was up there all the time. Credence was on the bill and they were great. But there’s something that had to be said for the guy in between the two bands, which was Albert King.
And I’d never heard of Albert King. He completely just changed everything, just his performance and where he was coming from emotionally. Right there was a go this way, son, kind of thing.
This is where you need to go. Did it really come off the back of the song Watermelon Man? Oh, yeah. That’s the opener he had.
He did Watermelon Man and right into Blues Power, which just tore my head off. It was an amazing moment of clarity of where I wanted to go, what I wanted. Well, this is what I want to play, because I realized then that this is the original music that supplied us with all these other musics from America.
The British invasion had already swept through America. You had people like John Mayall and Clapton, as you mentioned, redefining and redeveloping all the American bluesman sounds from people like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williams. When you heard Eric Clapton playing Freddie King’s Hideaway, that had a huge impact on you, too, didn’t it? I think it had a huge impact on every guitar player or kid or musician that wanted to be a musician in America, because the fantastic thing about it is that here was music that originated here.
And the British had taken a hold of it and shot it back to us with their flavor on it. And it became a hybrid. I remember a buddy of mine taking me to Wallach’s Music City to listen to records in the demo booth, and he played some stuff with Eric with Fresh Cream and then with John Mayall.
I’d never heard a guitar do that. Then to go there and to have Eric Clapton say, don’t look at me, look behind me. This is where I went to get where I am.
And that’s what was brilliant, was just to find out that it was here all the time, but we really didn’t see it. We let it go. And the British embraced it and brought it back.
And look what happened. I mean, look at how wonderful. The Beatles and Eric Burton and the Animals.
I just ate up as much of that as I could get. I smoked my first cigarette at ten, and for girls I had a bad yin, and I had quite a haul when I was young. When I was young, it was more important, ain’t more painful to laugh so much louder, yeah.
When I was young, I met my first love at thirteen. She was brown and I was pretty green, and I learned quite a lot when I was young, when I was young. When you decided to embrace the blues, how did that change what you were playing and your whole attitude? I followed pretty much what anybody else would do, any young guy would do, as I had my heroes.
Eric Clapton was one of them, Mick Taylor, you know, Peter Green. And I was just eating up as much as I could, plus studying the originators of the music, which was a brilliant thing with Albert Collins. I had met and played with so many of the immortal greats.
How did you meet Albert Collins? You know, it’s chance meetings in my life. The two big chance meetings in my life have changed my life a thousandfold, and every time it happened. And one of the times it happened was meeting Albert Collins at a Buddy Miles gig at the Whiskey Go-Go.
A friend of mine used to play sax for him, and he was telling me all about Albert, and I had never heard him play. I didn’t know who he was. We ended up sitting there next to him and just a great guy.
Ended up going to his house afterwards, partying, having fun and stuff. And then it wasn’t until several months later where he had to do a matinee at a club that I play at. Once again, blew my head off.
And that was chance meeting. And then he took my number down. I didn’t think of anything of it until one day I was out in the backyard with my friends.
And my mother says, there’s an Albert Collins calling here for you. Something about wants to talk to you. And I said, oh, well, who am I? I know.
And he was desperate for a drummer. And I wasn’t a blues drummer. I was playing the top 40 of the day and I could do the Ginger Baker thing, you know, stuff like that, you know, but I was not a root black blues drummer.
But Albert was desperate. So I said, well, I’ll figure we’ll rehearse a couple of weeks and go on our way. Well, he says, no, he says, I’ll be by to pick you up in three hours.
I packed up a quick suitcase, wrapped my drums up in blankets and stuff, and we put it in a trailer and off we went and played the first gig, Cold Turkey. How did that go for you? It was frightening. It was it was horribly frightening.
You’re sorry you said yes. And the guys were like running the show down to me while we’re driving. I had a shot of Jack Daniels and we went for it.
And there was nothing like it. It’s hard to explain. It was just amazing.
I can’t imagine that you didn’t know the songs. You hadn’t rehearsed with the band. Talk about being thrown into the deep end and just having to go with it.
Exactly. I mean, all Albert did was, hey, son, don’t worry. Everything’s going to be great.
I’m glad you’re here with me. You’re going to be fine. You just watch everything I do.
Watch everything. Don’t worry about anything. Just look at me.
You’ll find your way through. And he was correct because he was giving me cues what to do. So how well did I do? I don’t know.
But he decided to keep me because of my dedication to what he was doing. The emotion from Albert Collins is just something so hard to describe. A very wonderful guy, as long as you were sweet to him, as long as everything was cool.
He was the nicest, sweetest man on this earth. Was he like any of the other blues guys that had to watch their back? Yeah, he was. He went through a lot of hell.
That was the other part of my education, of learning what it’s like to sit by firsthand, seeing what he went through, what would make him angry. And then you didn’t want to be around him when he was angry. I told him I’d go home.
You get yourself a real drummer. The guy can play your stuff. I’ll go home.
I just want to help you. And then when he told me, he said, you want to learn? I love this music. I want to learn.
He said, stick with me, son. Stick with me and I’ll learn them to you. Coco remained with the Albert Collins band for five years.
It was during that period that he began doubling on guitar as Albert went out of his way to teach him everything he knew.
This is A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Albert Collins spent countless hours with Coco Montoya in hotel rooms between gigs, teaching the younger man to feel his way through the music.
The pair became so close that Albert referred to Coco as his son. After leaving the band, the two remained close until Albert passed away from cancer in 1993. Playing for him was a moment of pride every night, of incredible pride.
And seeing him do well, that was just fantastic. It was great for me. If I could have kept doing it, I would have just kept doing it.
It taught me perseverance. He had a power. A lot of the old guys had a power.
That’s what I called it, a power. B.B. King was another one. Albert King was another one.
They just wouldn’t be denied. There was something inside them that they would get on stage with a broken leg and make you ask for an encore. These guys had this, it could be so tired, it could be so wiped out from traveling, they would get up on stage and breathe their last breath.
So be it. That’s what always fascinated me. I was always trying to find out how to tap into that amazing power that he had.
Born on a bad time, since I began to crawl For bad luck, hard luck and trouble Ever since I was 10 Born on a bad time, since I began to crawl I remember something B.B. King told me a long time ago. Albert said, oh, my son, he just needs a little more confidence. B. goes, well, son, you got the best right there with Albert.
But you stay there, he’s going to teach you confidence and stuff. He said, I’ll tell you something though. He said, you go up on stage like you’re the baddest in the world.
He said, ain’t nobody better. He said, but do the right thing. Leave it on stage.
It’ll always be there when you come back. When you come down the stairs, be humble and be grateful. That’s exactly what B.B. told me.
Amazing lesson to learn. So much more important that you be humble and grateful. He said, because then whatever you did on that show, you just multiplied a thousand fold because people looked at you and it takes people less time to know you than it took to begin to get to know you.
They could dump you off real quick, but people just love to see that you come down willing to shake a hand. And it’s true because I’ve been on the other side of that where maybe I wasn’t so nice at times, you know, because of the pressures of the business and things. I learn.
I learn from these guys. It was also Albert Collins that transitioned you from being a drummer back into playing the guitar, wasn’t it? Well, he was definitely an influence, a big influence, but I started playing guitar when I was like 13. I could get the chills listening to the Bee Gees.
Incredible vocals, incredible music. But, Coco, you started playing guitar for Albert Collins, didn’t you? Well, it wasn’t until after I got out of the business that I would every once in a while go to a local gig that Albert was playing or something, but I was out of the business. I was just working as a bartender.
Our social life continued on past me playing with him. He was like a dad. He was like a father.
He must have been very upset to lose you from the band. Yeah, but he was also quick enough to say, you got to go do what you got to do, son. You got to take care of things.
And, yeah, your bills piled up. I don’t want you to lose your van. I don’t want you making your mama pay all those bills.
He was an amazing man where he, I’ll give you a for instance, I met a girl in Seattle, Washington, and I was in love. I moved to Seattle, Washington, and I was there for about a year and a half. Of course, everything was going wrong.
Lost the girlfriend. Ended up living in my van with my dog. I went to see Albert play.
He was in town playing, so I went to see him, and I was just telling him how great it was up here and I’m doing great and all that. He just stood there looking at me, staring at me. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so you’re doing all right, huh? Okay, you’re doing good. Mm-hmm. All right.
He said, why are you lying to me? I said, yeah, pops, I’m sorry. I said, just things are horrible, you know, not doing good at all. I just thought I had it all together, and I didn’t.
He said, you’ve had enough. He reached in his boot pocket, peeled off $400. Now, $400 in the mid-’70s, that’s a good piece of change.
But he said, here, call your mom and tell her you’re on your way home. That’s the kind of relationship I had with Albert. You were certainly paying your dues as any good bluesman would have to do, weren’t you? I think anybody has to.
In any walk of life, you have to pay. I think the thing that I didn’t have, which is the blessings of Albert Collins and John Mayall, was they taught me how to slip on a banana peel and get up from it, where I couldn’t as a kid slip on the banana peel. You know, I’m through.
I’m done. I can’t recover. I watched them recover and how they would persevere behind, you know, some situations that were just terrible.
You know, racial situations, you know, money situations with promoters. What a great lesson, I mean, from both those guys, from Mayall and him. All the lovin’ is lovin’ All the kissin’ is kissin’ Before I met you, baby Never knew what I was missin’ All your love, pretty baby That I got just for you All your love, pretty baby That I got in store for you I love you, pretty baby Well, I say you love me too In terms of Albert Collins, if he had been a white pop artist touring around the place, would have he got paid a whole lot more money than what he was making as a black blues player? Absolutely, he would have made a lot more money.
There was times that I’d seen him with tears in his eyes, just knowing that he was getting screwed over by a couple of promoters or something. There was one show, we had crossed America, we went all the way across America from Seattle to Detroit or something of that nature. There was a big festival there, and the promoter said, hey, we’re kind of losing our tail on this, they can give you half the money we promised you.
And Albert was so angry, so upset, and I looked at him and I said, Pops, let’s not let them do this to you anymore. He says, I want to walk. Now, I was too young to really know if I was helping him in making a good decision, but my pride said to take half a man’s money that came all the way across America just don’t sound right to me, and I’ll back him whatever he decides to do.
Those are the kind of situations that a lot of these bluesmen were going through. I’m sure every one of them were going through that. And, of course, at the time, the music, the blues and stuff like that, we had disco going on and stuff like that, so it was really a difficult time, especially with Albert with no record deal.
The blues were so undervalued during that time. Right, exactly. So how long did you remain a barman for? Well, late 70s into the 80s.
I was working at a pub in Hollywood up in Laurel Canyon. It was a cat and fiddle pub owned by Kim Gardner, Ashton Gardner, and Dyke, so he knew all the musicians. They would all be there.
Tom Jones would be in there. Eric Burton would be in there. Nobody really knew I played.
I just happened to go every Tuesday night. There was a jam session in Hollywood. That would be my thing to do.
I’d go there and jam and play, and the big stars would get up there and just play with whoever was up there. I remember Rod Stewart being in there. You name it, there was all kinds of people.
And you just jam, and John happened to come in when I was playing. John Mayall. Yeah, John came in, and the sound man was making board mixes of that, so John asked him if he could have a board mix of me playing.
I guess apparently when Mick Taylor left John to go with Bob Dylan, John got my phone number, but I didn’t believe it was him, so I stood him up. You didn’t. I thought it was some of the English guys having a go at me.
I thought, there’s no way this is ever going to happen. And then finally he called. He goes, why didn’t you call me on that? You were supposed to show up for this and that.
And I go, what? He says, this is John Mayall. Anyway, it convinced me, finally figured out what it was, and I ended up going out there to play and see if he liked it, and he offered me the job. So I was immediately back into the music business, but as a guitar player.
The drum thing was gone, way gone. Got me one life to live I ain’t even supposed to die Well they sent me To the left Put a rifle In my hand We thought about our families Will we ever see their lives again Ain’t supposed to end That was at a time when John Mayall was reforming the Blues Breakers. He himself had had a 16-year hiatus at that time.
Yeah, I think he had done some things, but not like he was. He had a regrouping of the Blues Breakers with Mick Taylor, John McVie on bass, and Colin Allen, I think, on drums. They toured, they did a live album, and then Cleveland Mack was going out again, so the bass player was busy.
Mick Taylor got the offer with Bob Dylan, and so that’s when John wanted to continue. He was ready to do Blues Breakers again, so he got me, and we started it out. We did that pretty much from 84, we started that, and then Walter Trout came in 85.
So what was it like playing with the Blues Breakers and the great John Mayall? It was a dream come true. You’re talking about a kid that probably had seven or eight worn-out albums of the Beano album and everything else, all the other albums, except the Mick Taylor, the Crusade album. For me, it was just banging your head, seeing if you’re still alive.
It was weird. It was an incredible joy, and then became a very scary thing because when you come to the realization that all your heroes were in this band, especially Eric. I think he’s probably the only one that would frighten me to death.
He’s amazing. He’s just always been amazing to me. So here I am in a position where I’m playing these songs that they’re noted for and the ones that I listen to and study note for note.
It’s a mean old scene When it comes to the double-crossin’ time It’s a mean old scene When it comes to the double-crossin’ time It’s a mean old scene John Maled, after a couple months, he pulled me aside. He said, look, tonight I want you to come out there and forget about Eric Clapton. Eric is not in this band.
You are. So when we do have you heard tonight, I don’t want you to play Eric’s solo. I want you to play your solo.
He said, don’t forget the first chapter in the Blues book. what interpretation play the song the way you play it and he was right and he goes I love to listen to everybody to anybody that will play a version of Stormy Monday as much as that has been abused across the world he said but if they do it their own way if you’re gonna do it like exactly like T-Bone Walker I’ve got all of T-Bone Walker stuff here on the wall here he says I can listen to T-Bone do it how are you gonna do it liked or not liked how are you gonna do it you gotta put yourself out there you have to the freedom this man just gave me he just told me you don’t have to be them and I thought well I’m doing these songs I totally blew out like I said the first rule you know it’s like do the songs but you do it tonight you’re gonna do it like you do it not like Eric does it not like Peter Green you can have that essence of course you borrow the essence there’s the ones that go before you if Eric was in the audience I’m sure you want to hear me do me instead of me trying to mimic him so it brought me a lot of freedom and it opened up a lot of things for me and I’m very indebted to John for that Wednesday’s just as bad Wednesday’s worse and Thursday’s also sad Yes, the eagle flies on Friday and Saturday I go out to play Yes, the eagle flies on Friday and Saturday I go out to play How lucky were you to have two such incredible mentors incredibly lucky that that’s like people say well how does that happen I don’t know I don’t know how it happened but I’m grateful I’m grateful as can be because if John hadn’t made that phone call I’d probably still be bartending somewhere but for me it’s it’s incredible you came more and more into yourself right it took time yeah it does because like I tell you going back as a kid I wasn’t a very confident child I wasn’t a confident person I tried to play baseball I tried to play football American football I didn’t know the game very well but as soon as somebody criticized me or made fun of me boom throw it you know don’t do that again because you can’t I couldn’t handle the the put down yeah for some reason when I play guitar and somebody say you stink you’re laughing I persevered and I kept going and I didn’t let them stop me from doing this I wanted it I needed it the idea of playing did I ever think I was really good no even now it’s 71 years old I mean I look at it I go till my dying day there’s gonna be something for me to learn I’m glad to be of this age now where I can look at my playing and be that that’s me that’s fine Coco Montoya appeared on more than a dozen albums with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers he spent a decade with the band all up and also played on releases by BB King Tommy Castro and Solomon Burke his bartending days were left far behind him.
This is a Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Coco had been taught by Albert Collins to just play what you feel, to be real about it and to enjoy yourself.
So that’s what he did. The self-taught left-handed artist mastered his craft under Albert Collins’ tutelage. Then John Mayall encouraged Coco to put his own stamp onto every song he performed.
So he did that too. Finally, Coco decided to go solo and it was John Mayall who encouraged him to do so. I had already kind of figured it.
What is there left to do now? I was grateful to play Room to Move and I was grateful to play Have You Heard All That, but after 10 years it was like it’s time to do something. Me and John, I told him I just wanted to have a talk and we went to his room and we sat and talked and he said, well, sounds like it’s time for you to move on. I thought about it and I said, you know, John, you know what’s weird? When I used to get angry, a couple times I got angry and told you I was going to leave and that was filled with angst.
I’m not scared right now. I think it’s time for whatever’s next. John helped me through that decision and I did know what I was going to do.
Now you see peculiar, how I think of you If you want me darling, here’s what humans do You gotta give me, cause I can’t get the best unless I got room to move I knew that I had to get sober. I had a bad problem with drink and drugs. Walter Trout had gotten sober and I was pretty jealous that he looked happy.
So if I was going to go out and try and be the front man and try and do this thing that I would have to sober up. How difficult was that for you? Not real bad, no. I made a decision not to drink anymore and not to do any drugs and it’s just happened since.
I went to one meeting and that was with Stevie Ray Vaughan and I told him, I said, Stevie, I’m still drinking. I got a hip flask in my back pocket and he said, I don’t care. I just want you to come and just listen.
I didn’t say anything. So I went there and listened and I think that was his way to put that little bee in my vomit. Well you’ve heard about lovers giving sex to the blind My river’s shining, she’s my sweet little thing She’s my sweet little baby I’m her little eyes, I won’t ever go She’s my sweet little thing She’s my pride and joy It made everything possible for me to go on and do my own career.
And your own career has just blossomed from one great album to the next. It was 95 when you did Got a Mind to Travel. That one featured guest spots from Albert Collins, which was his final recorded performance from John Mayall, Debbie Davis and Al Cooper.
What a cast! Oh yeah, Richie Hayward from Little Feet. All my friends came and helped. They all came and helped.
Got a mind to travel Got a mind to go back home Got a mind to travel Got a mind to go back home There’s got to be something about you. You built up such a friendship circle among so many great musicians and they all were there for you. They all wanted to help you.
They all mentored you. You know, I’ve always wanted to be a person that treats somebody with equal respect. That’s something kind of important to me when I meet folks.
Just be real, just be people. We’re not here to screw each other over a contract. Just to be good to each other.
Coco’s first solo album won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist. After that, he became not only a popular player amongst blues fans, critics and radio programmers but a mainstay and draw on the scene. He released several more albums, each according to his own eclectic taste.
I do these albums. I really like this song. That’s why I want to do it.
For me, that brought frictions here and there because the music business itself, they don’t want you to like 50s doo-wop. You’re a blues guy. You don’t do that stuff.
Why couldn’t I? I wrote a song for my second album. It was called You Think I Know Better. It just came out country feel.
The concerns of the company, you’re not a country artist. I go, no, I’m not. But I wrote this song, and I like it.
So I had to fight hard to get that song passed by the record company. And wouldn’t you know it, it ended up being the title cut of the album. Here we are again The telephone’s again With open hands Record companies always want to pigeonhole you, don’t they? Oh, yeah.
It’s just like when I did the I Want It All Back album produced by Kev Moe and my keyboard player, Jeff Paris. The first thing Kevin, he said, you’re going to catch hell for this. You know that, don’t you? I go, well, why would I? He says, because we’re going to push the boundaries as who Coco Montoya is.
I go, what? I just play. Yeah, but these aren’t… You’ve got a blues people over here, and you’ve got other people that are not as big, that are Coco Montoya fans because of other reasons. You know, we’re going to mess with some old 50s, 60s stuff.
You know, and we did. We messed with quite a few things on that album. And what I’m proud of is that we, you know, I’m not ashamed to say I love these tunes.
Some other guys are feeling your head with jazz You know that I’m in love You better break up and you’ll lose me The one that really loves you Johnny only wants you until the day That’s far, far away So love you, better wake up and you’ll lose me Look to me, the one that really loves you I remember when Alice Cooper and I interviewed, they said, well, what are some favorite bands by you that would absolutely surprise you? I absolutely love the Bee Gees. I love them. And I looked at Alice Cooper, loves the Bee Gees.
Those guys are incredible. And I said, yeah, and I’ve always loved them. I’ve got every album by the Bee Gees.
I went and saw them when they did Two Years On. What an incredible show. The full symphony orchestra, the whole thing.
It was still to this day, I listen to that stuff. But that’s what’s great about being influenced by all these things. As you’re getting older and older and you’re getting closer to checking out of this world, you’re saying, well, why couldn’t I delve into that if I choose to, if I wrote something like that? That makes music exciting.
That’s what makes things worthwhile, to follow your instincts and follow your emotions. Coco Montoya, tell me a little bit about this latest album, Riding On The Wall. Would you agree that it’s your best to date? I’m definitely excited about it.
It’s like, you know, the circus in town for me. I enjoyed myself. Musicians that I use, my road band.
You know, so it was after going on the road for so many years together, it just made sense to me, it’s time to do a road band album. We brought the guys in and they really stepped up and made me sound great. They really did.
I think the chemistry between you all really comes through too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it’s there.
It’s many years of doing road gigs, the chemistry is amazing. But we have, we have this magic. I think it shines through on the album.
There are 13 tracks on the album. Do you have an absolute favourite? I don’t think I have an absolute favourite. There’s so much I like on there.
I mean, I love what Dave Steen brought to us and his writing. He’s a guy I co-write with, but he brought in some of his clues. That’s the track I was wrong? Yeah, that’s Dave.
He’s an amazing writer out of Lincoln, Nebraska. And me and Jeff, the last couple of years, have started writing together as well, as well with Dave. So we’ve really pursued that, the three of us, which a lot of guys don’t do very well.
They don’t do that. We did really well with that. I’m surrounded by immensely talented people.
Sure are. And, of course, your friend, guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks, who is the son of Lonnie Brooks. He’s on there as well with you.
I love what you do with Bobby Bland’s You Got Me. Yeah, he’s family now. Ronnie’s family.
I’ve known Ronnie since he was a kid. There’s another situation where it’s beyond the music. Me and Ronnie are very close.
I said, may I want you to play on this? He jumped at it. Perfect, sounded great. I said, now I want you to sing on this other one and play.
And it was brilliant. It was just so much fun. There was nothing negative.
We just did it. He came in one day and we just knocked it out. Well, you got me Where you want me You said before you did Well, you got me Pretty baby, you satisfied You said you’d always love me And you said you’d always Bound you with another You’re so blue Well, you got me Where you want me Pretty baby, you satisfied The more you hear of Jeff Paris on all this stuff, Jeff plays everything.
Jeff sings like a bird. He plays great guitar. He can play slide.
He can play everything. He plays mandolin. He plays B3.
He plays piano. He’s an immensely talented man. Riding on the Wall, it’s out now.
And are you touring off the back of it? Yes. We’ll go out and we’ll have to get in the studio here and learn everything again, which is the fun part. That’s what I like about my band.
We have so much fun. We laugh a lot of stuff off. We work hard.
Don’t get me wrong. We work hard and we try to get the parts all right. But if anybody makes a mistake, it’s all grins.
We all grin. They’ll start laughing. Don’t take yourselves too seriously.
You can’t. I’ll go in the dressing room and slam the door. And I go, how could you guys let me play that way? We’re just having fun.
That’s what’s great about music. Enjoy it. Have fun.
Blemishes are beauty marks. Remember? I absolutely love that. You don’t miss the bartending at all? No, I can do without that.
Yeah, I had my time. Bartending psychologist. Yeah, right.
Congratulations on this latest album. Thank you, Sandy. You are definitely taking the blues to a whole new level, and that’s something to be really proud of.
I am. I am very proud of that. Thank you so much, Sandy.
It’s been a wonderful time spent with you. Thank you. Let’s do it again.
Okay, you’re on. Next album. Sounds good.
Bye now. Bye-bye now. It’s a beautiful day You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye.
Beautiful day Oh, baby, any day that you’re gone away It’s a beautiful day