Dirty Deal review

Admirers of Coco Montoya waited for this album for five long years

There are only few guitarists in the modern blues scene who can achieve that highly emotional, scorched with the hot sun, level of guitar playing that Coco Montoya delivers with his songs. His career began in early 70’s after an accidental meeting with a legendary blues performer Albert Collins who provided him with a job in his band for the five next years. Though Coco was invited as a drummer, he and Collins became friends owing to guitar precisely. Despite Coco was playing since he was thirteen this was Collins who taught him how a blues guitarist should sound spending with him long hours of improvisation. But up to the decade’s end the musicians had to stick to a common routine labor because of growing popularity of Disco. Having a daytime job Coco continues to perform at nights as a guitarist and singer perfecting his skills. During the next decade he works in John Mayell’s project Bluesbreakers, and by the time he decides to dwell upon his solo career in 1993 he is already a well-known professional musician with a huge experience. Admirers of this master of roaring blues guitar have been suffering in suspense to hear his new album for five long years and Coco Montoya just couldn’t let them down. His sixth solo album Dirty Deal is another blues masterpiece that confirms his high status of one of the leading guitarists in the modern blues.

Dirty Deal will doubtlessly join a number of this year’s best blues albums

Edgy but sensitive, roaring but as beautiful as an emerald Montoya’s guitar sound was always the strongest trump in his pack of cards, and he knows when he should ruff. He starts the game using this one, great, lively song Last Dirty Deal is a potential energetic blues hit that has everything so characteristic to this style of music including a final climax solo. Montoya doesn’t seem to like the idea of throttling the tension back, he keeps the things tuff up to the very last note of the final Ain’t No Brakeman. Even a song How Do You Sleep At Night that claims to be a ballad is laterally cries with edgy sounding, creating a specific atmosphere of a dim lightening of a bar where among numerous visitors and cigar smoke the band plays true, soul piercing blues. This effect was partially achieved owing to the efforts of Paul Barrere who took part in this record as a producer. He succeeded well in reflecting Montoya’s live sound and tried to capture it in maximum exactness. Another great composition of this album is a cover version at Collins’ Put The Shoe On The Other Foot that demonstrates a narrow range of Montoya’s vocal abilities.

Sensitive in the inner content and expressive in sound

While having a whole set of doubtless advantages Dirty Deal still cannot be called the very best album of Coco Montoya, though it is really close to this status. There are some weak points here, Montoya suffers blues cliche addiction in lyrics using such rhymes like “falling tears/dirty deals” quite often and at times his lyrical hero turns to feel such a deep grief that one may think that a whole story will end with a suicide. But actually this is a controversial point; sadness is the essence of blues and many people like when this feeling is exaggerated in music. Because of the long breaks between record sessions some tracks turn out to be unequal in quality and, moreover, Montoya replays songs of other performers pretty often, instead of making his own. However these remarks are so captious that they wither before the actual facts that this album delivers. Dirty Deal came out to be a very sensitive in its inner content and edgy and expressive in sound, any blues music lover will praise the talents of Coco Montoya even if he isn’t acquainted with his previous works.