Coco Montoya

Coco Montoya plays Knuckleheads on Wednesday, October 14, at 7:30 PM. He's a left-handed blues guitar virtuoso and a soul-deep singer, and he's coming to Kansas City as a solo headliner.

Montoya is a self-taught player who got his start behind the drums for Albert Collins before moving over to second guitar for him. From there, he spent ten years touring and recording with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, so he's spent a good chunk of his career playing alongside some of the biggest names in the blues. He didn't put out his first solo album until 1995, and it earned him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist. Since then, he's kept his name at the top of the blues world with a string of albums on Alligator, Blind Pig, and Ruf Records. One of those is Writing On The Wall, his sixth for Alligator, produced by Tony Braunagel and co-produced by Jeff Paris.

He was born in Santa Monica, California, on October 2, 1951, and has spent most of his life on the road. He's built his reputation on a direct, hard-driving blues style, and he's known for combining inventive guitar work with hard-hitting vocals. If you're not familiar with him, that's the sound you'll hear: a left-handed guitar player who can hold his own on the singing, too.

General admission is $25.95, and the show starts at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, October 14, at Knuckleheads, 2715 Rochester Ave., Kansas City, MO 64120.