James Montgomery Band Rocks Northampton's Iron Horse Music Hall

Considering the snow we had earlier in the day on Friday, the night still brought out an almost sold out crowd to Northamtpn's Iron Horse Music Hall to see and hear the James Montgomery Blues Band, who took the stage at 8 p.m. and opened with a Paul Butterfield Blues Band song "one More Heartache", and continued on with a mini tribute to Paul Butterfield with two more from James's current release entitled The James Montgomery Blues Band, which is a tribute to the legendary Paul Butterfield, the other two songs performed were "born In Chicago" and "I've Got A Mind TO Give Up Living" the night continued with some great blues songs including James's rendition of the Rolling Stones "Miss You" and Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" which was the night's encore and closer to the set. Playing along side with James in this powerhouse line-up was bass player David Hall who has played with some greats as well such as Buddy Miles, Aerosmith and the Joe Perry Project he also performed a track entitled "Strange Devices" which was inspired by bass player Jack Bruce of the legendary band Cream, playing on guitar with James was guitarist guitarist Gary "Guitar" Gramolini from John Cafferty's Beaver Brown Band who scored multi-platinum hits like "on The Darkside", "Tender Years" and many more, this was his first time out with James's blues band but definitely had the guitar licks going for the night's performance.

There was a supporting act "The Mighty King Snakes" who were adequate for an opener, but was not the highlight of the night to this writer. I didn't think they had a real strong stage presence for the room and the band was semi over powering to the lead singer, it was as though the singer was buried in the mix of the instruments, it's a shame because it sounds like the band has serious potential, but it didn't show due to the sound man running their set.

If you get a chance to see the James Montgomery Blues Band you'll have a rockin' good time.