BSM: This seems like a good time to ask about the new album. How did you choose the 11 songs for the new album?
JM: I think this is really my first concept record. I think what we did with this one, is I sat down with Mark Copely, who I really have a lot of respect for, and he’s got this edgy feel for things, just a really intuitive guy, and we figured out, “What do we want to do with this record?” Normally, when I make a record, I take some songs I’ve written, maybe a few others I wanted to record, go in and record them. With this one, we actually sat down and said, what do we want to do here? We felt it was important for me, in the industry, to establish myself as a blues guy. As much as I don’t think of myself as anything but a blues guy, people in the industry think, because of the records I put out, and the tours I’ve done, people go “Oh, James Montgomery, he’s kind of blues, kind of rock, kind of funk, kind of New Orleans.” So with this album, we wanted to say, “No, no--I’m a blues guy.” And then we also wanted to get a kind of production style together, and believe it or not, we focused on that Dylan album that Daniel Lanois produced, and we kind of said to ourselves, something along
those lines would be cool. Not specifically, but we wanted to use those kinds of textures, those kinds of instrumentation, and we wanted it to be kind of eerie, in parts. Once we had those ideas, then we would go back and pick songs and artists that really meant a lot to me growing up. So, no one could say this wasn’t a blues album. At the same time, we didn’t want people to say this was a typical blues album. So that was the concept, and I’ve got to say, from the reviews of it so far, people have been getting it. In some of the reviews, people have been using words like “eerie” and “spooky,” and these are the words we were saying when we were putting the concept together. I’m encouraged by that, because this is the first time I’ve tried to do something lke this.
BSM: I was impressed in that is seems a lot less polished than a lot of latter day blues albums.
JM: That’s the thing. I had the radio show for so many years, and I would get these records, and they’re all great records by great people, but after awhile, they all started to sound the same, and everyone was going for this slick, West-coast blues production. “Unpolished” is a good word, you know. That Dylan album, “Time Out of Mind,” is totally unpolished, and spontaneous, and we belabored nothing on this record. That’s what we wanted, for it to be raw and unpolished.
BSM: You just mentioned your radio show, “Backstage With the Blues,” a moment ago. Can you tell us a little about that?
JM: I hosted it for about 2 years, and then the station changed hands, and there were big changes. I was no longer able to produce the show there, and then with my touring schedule, it became really difficult to find a place to produce. So, we have close to 100 shows in the can, shows with interviews with Greg Allman, Robert Cray, Ruth Brown, James Cotton, Bobby Rush...I mean, there’s 100 of them. And we were pretty happy that we got Dr. John, a lot of people like Johnny Lang,
Susan Tedeschi, we got to interview who we wanted to. And now, I’m a candidate for satellite radio, which I guess is going to launch on September 15, so there’s a chance I’ll be syndicated on that. I may end up doing that.
BSM: Also, you’re the president of the New England Blues Society. What exactly does this organization do?
JM: I guess, when I was approached to join the Blues Society, the people wanted to make it clear that this society...would make the community a better place for blues musicians. Unlike other blues societies, which all are terrific, this was going to be more than just a group of people who love the music. One of the things that I’d always wanted to do was set up a medical program for blues musicians, and these people were willing to work with me on that. So I joined, and I guess because I’m in the position where I’m on the road and schmoozing with people a lot, eventually, the job of president eventually drifted over to me. So, everyone in the society has been working really hard. We have Lisa Herns, who does the schools, and Shirley Lewis who does a lot of the schmoozing and networking like me, and gets a lot of the people involved. And we have Art Simas, who has been really helpful on the medical stuff, and he edits the paper. It’s a group that really rolls up its sleeves and tries to get things done in the blues community. We’ve got free legal and medical programs for the blues musicians. The medical program for the musicians is fairly extensive, actually. We offer a lot of services. The way we stay afloat is by promoting blues concerts. We just had a big success with the Reel Blues Fest in the Woods Hole Film Festival, with Jim Belushi and James Cotton. That went really well. We’re doing another one up in Mt. Wachusett in New Hampshire, where I’ll be playing with Jimmy Vivino from the Conan O’Brien house band. And we have Michelle Wilson, Sandra Wilson, and the New England Living Legend All Stars, as well. These are pretty big shows, you know. We anticipate doing about 5,000 people at that show.
BSM: At this point in your career, are there any goals you have for yourself that have yet to be fulfilled?
JM: To be honest with you, I would like to have a successful record. That’s really important for me to do that. That, to me, is a personal goal. It’s also a personal goal to see if we can take this medical program we’ve got here in New England and see if we can replicate it across the nation. That’s definitely possible. So, I’d like to see national healthcare put in place for musicians. So, musically, to put out a successful record, and there’s a couple more people I’d like to play with, record with. And I’d like to establish a market for me in Europe, and those are the things I’m working on now. It’d be great if we could sell 30-40,000 of this new record. I’m also writing a column, based on my radio show, and once the touring slows down, I plan on writing a book around that. But right now, the tour is going to be taking me all around the country, so I’m being kept pretty busy.

-Neal Alpert