Customer Reviews

Just Let Go

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this CD. I heard Coco on the blues channel on my satellite dish (the blues station) and had to try it. Every song is great and has a personality of it's own. Just Let Go is what caught my attention, but every song is as good as that one! If you like blues you cannot go wrong with this one!

This album (along with Montoya's two others) remains the most played in my collection. It's polished, emtional and exciting. The only question I have is: "When is the next one coming, Coco.....it's been two years man!"

Coco Montoya delivers some good chops here. Coco is an under-rated guitarist and a good vocalist. My personal preference is John Mayall's 'Life in the Jungle' which delivers the best of Coco's music (with Walter Trout). As a solo artist, he is certainly worth a listen. It is certainly a case of the student exceeding the tutor (Albert Collins).

This is still my favorite CD by Coco Montoya. I'm frankly amazed that anyone could knock it, nor can I understand making unfavorable comparisons to legends like the Iceman or B.B. King. I love all three of them, but for different reasons. They all have their place in the blues. And in my opinion, as both a blues fan and a blues guitarist, Montoya has earned his place many times over.

This was the first Coco Montoya album that I bought after seeing him live and it won me over right away. It is another solid album of great blues guitar and vocals. Montoya continues to grow as an artist on this one, and his songwriting continue to mature. Overall another very nice album from Coco and the band.

White hot electric Blues phenom, Coco Montoya pays high tribute to his mentor, and second Dad, Albert Collins, on this, his third release for Blind Pig Records. There is much of the late, great Texas Bluesman's style, especially on the slower cuts, Never Heard You Cry Before, and Collins' own, Do What You Want To Do, and native Californian, Montoya is the first to acknowledge that.

Montoya's upside down Fender Stat antics aside, this CD is full of strong and impassioned vocals, My Side of The Fence, Just Let Go, Hard Love, Beginner At The Blues, some Blues-Rock riffs and a smidgen of rollicking R&B. This last comes courtesy of stellar guesting from the likes of The Cate Brothers and Shaun Murphy, (late of Little Feat).

I give the edge to Delbert McClinton on Sending Me Angels, otherwise Montoya has come into his best voice yet on vocals, and manages to provide lead and rhythm (on the excellent instrumental, Mother and Daughter), that dazzles and rings clear as a bell, with admirable sustain.

Fans of Walter Trout, Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaugh, The Cate Brothers, Arc Angels and Storyville, will want to add this fine CD to their contemporary Blues collection. Also highly recommended: The Cate Brothers' Radioland, Walter Trout's self-titled release and Coco's own sophomore effort, Ya Think I'd Know Better, with same great backup bands and strong production values courtesy of Jim Gaines.

Coco Montoya is an engaging live performer, but this CD suffers from the Michael Bolton Syndrome, with Montoya seemingly on the verge of a nervous breakdown on nearly every track, even when shrieking Rocky Balboa-type inanities--"We gotta do what we gotta do!" Add to his desperate vocals his overplayed, piercing Fender Strat and it's an exhausting piece of work blaring out of your speakers. As B.B. King has proved, sometimes virtuosity is knowing when NOT to play. Montoya's songwriting, which dominates the CD, is also quite mediocre. You have to wait for the last song, Sending Me Angels, to have a tune you can actually distinquish, and Delbert McClinton did a better version of the song. I disagree with reviewers who state Montoya has surpassed his mentor, the great Albert Collins. Montoya, with this CD, is still only the Iceman's sideman and opening act.