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you’re gonna break like a bullet busted from a gun, You’re a hurricane, you’re cocaine, a
fifty-pound powder keg” Durham sings on ‘Powder Keg’.

The album is replete with despairing references about the gehenna of enforced separation from
humanity. Check out ‘Can’t Find No Peace’, ‘Look What It’s All Become’ and ‘Miserable Days’.

This is pretty close to a masterpiece. I really do hope it gets listened to but I hae-ma-doots.

Ian K McKenzie

Coco Montoya—Writing On The Wall—Alligator Records

Coco Montoya (born Henry Montoya in Santa Monica, California,
on October 2, 1951) this guitar ace was encircled by the blues
after hearing Freddie King play live. Shortly after that, Montoya
was a drummer and was working at a club in Los Angeles. The
wonderful Albert Collins was to play there but needed to borrow
a drum kit for his band. Coco’s were the traps of choice. Coco
went to the gig and later wrote “I went down to see his show
that night and it just tore my head off. The thing that I had seen
and felt with Albert King came pouring back on me when I saw

Albert Collins.” Coco was infected by the blues.

Soon thereafter, Collins employed Montoya as his drummer, mentoring the latter on guitar in
down time. The ‘Master of the Telecaster’ taught him well. Although there were lean periods,
it was only a matter of time before John Mayall, hearing Coco’s fiery chops, called him for the
guitar chair in the Bluesbreakers. Ten years and seven albums later and after life on the road
with one of the world’s top bands, Coco was ready to lead his own.

Eleven albums followed and this one makes the twelfth.

Coco chose to use his road band for this one; keyboard player and songwriter Jeff Paris (Keb’
Mo’, Bill Withers), bassist Nathan Brown, and drummer Rena Beavers. The album is replete

with guests, including the outstanding slide skills of Leroy Parnell ‘A Chip and a Chair’ and some
stunning axe-work by Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of Lonnie Brooks) on ‘You Got Me’. The result
is gob-smacking.

Produced by Grammy Award-winner Tony Braunagel (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and co-
produced by Jeff Paris, “Writing On The Wall” is a tour-de-force. Montoya has delivered a set

of outstanding tracks. Some with structure and content that make you want to go back time
and time again.

This one is IMHO one of the best things Coco has done and I am pretty sure will result in him
being on the receiving end of awards before too long.

Ian K McKenzie