it's OFFICIAL.....my acoustic guitar HERO is coming to town

I have now lived in SE Minnesota for almost 6 years, moving here
from the Valley Of The Sun, Mesa, AZ (metro-Phoenix). One of
the first things I did after the dust settled was investigate the local
music scene. Before I knew it I was standing in the office of the
director of Rochester Civic Music. Director Steven Schmidt afforded
me almost an hour to state my case as to why it would be prudent
to book Monte Montgomery to his summer concert line up. I
explained to Mr Schmidt what a 'Montiac' is (self proclaimed fan),
and how his fan base has a history of traveling great distances.
He listened intently to my rant, and a CD of Monte 'bootlegs' I
had prepared. Many of the bootleg offerings were recorded directly
off the soundboard from various small, Texas venues & clubs.
Those same bootlegs were gifts from other hell-bent Montiac's who
were equally affected by Monte Montgomery's amazing talents and
virtuosity. Despite my fanatical enthusiasm and effort to get my foot
in the door, I saw nothing positive become of that initial effort, but
remained persistent, none the less.

Each new year since my original 'rant' I would send reminders to
Mr Schmidt...to no avail! Finally, a management change for Monte
would prove to positive, not only for Monte himself, but In addition
to sending annual reminders to Mr Schmidt, I would also send a
reminder to Monte's management to consider looking at Rochester,
MN as a viable stop on a summer tour. Plain and simply, this
community has an excellent city-run program that brings quality
entertainment to town throughout the calendar year. Well, I believe
the stars and planets have aligned sometime earlier this year,
as the news came down the pike from Pollstar.com that Monte
Montgomery would be performing 'Down By The Riverside' in Mayo
Civic Park in late July. After numerous e-mails back & forth with the
Rochester Civic Music staff, and a little patience, the official word
arrived yesterday via the OFFICIAL Rochester Civic Music website.

Monte Montgomery still brings people together from afar. Even
though YouTube is saturated with his material, seeing this guy
perform LIVE and in living color is still a special event for any
'Montiac'. We Montiac's tend to look around at his shows for
the 'slack-jaws', and the looks of amazement and perma-smiles
that seem to be very prevalent at a Monte Montgomery
performance. I myself was inspired to learn to play guitar because
of Monte Montgomery, period! (end of story). Actually, that in
itself is a story in itself, so I'll save that one for another day.

In closing, please investigate more for yourself on
Monte Montgomery. Perhaps he will inspire you, as he has
inspired me!

http://www.riversideconcerts.com/concerts/event.aspx?eventid=4621
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfQxGkM7Kk8
http://www.montemontgomery.net


-Steve