Last night I went to a venue in Bristol I hadn’t visited before, the very intimate and cosy little theatre at the Alma Tavern. I went to see a favourite performer, Kevin Montgomery, a man not only of talent, but an impeccable musical heritage – oh and a great guy too!
Kevin’s father, Bob, to whom he often refers during his shows, was born in 1937, and sadly died last year at the age of seventy-seven. Bob’s best friend from school, and a man with whom he wrote many well-known songs, was Buddy Holly – they actually sang together as ‘Buddy and Bob’ and had a weekly radio programme. Some of the songs from those days which Bob wrote with Buddy were ‘Heartbeat’, ‘Wishing’ and ‘Love’s Made a Fool of You’. Bob also wrote ‘Misty Blue’ and ‘Back in Baby’s Arms’ which patsy Cline made famous. Bob went on to become a record producer, and perhaps his most well-known hit in this country is ‘Honey’ sung by Bobby Goldsborough… I had the honour of meeting Bob’s wife, Kevin’s mother once, and had quite a long and pleasantly ordinary conversation with her; she is a remarkable person and was a backing singer for many of the ‘greats’, including Elvis Presley, Jimmy Buffett, Dolly Parton, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan and Marie Osmond.
Anyway… back to the Alma Theatre, a tiny venue – for an audience of about sixty. I bought tickets for the show as soon as it was announced, and lucky I did because they soon all sold out… if you want to see Kevin you have to snap up the tickets quickly!
Kevin came onto the stage… stage in the loosest possible terms, a small area at the front of the seats! I was in a perfect position, in the second row and had a perfect view of Kevin and his guitarist, the very talented Sean Snook. Kevin performed many old favourites, and new numbers too, and we were treated to his wonderful, rambling but funny stories about all sorts of things, from life on the road, to the inspiration of songs, to memories of his dad. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of singing along, a lot of nostalgic and moving moments, and it was just brilliant!!!
This is from a house concert… a great favourite, Tennessee Girl…
http://https://youtu.be/VrCrbm5mAWo
http://www.kevinmontgomery.com/
http://www.alancackett.com/bob-montgomery-obituary
Lois Elsden 