Once again I made my way to London's Borderline, this time to see Kevin Montgomery.   I enjoyed him so much in Scotland that I just had to see him again.   There was an added bonus at this show as he brought a friend to open the show, singer/songwriter Jeff Finlin.   Jeff did five or six songs, all self-penned, and was ably backed by Pat Buchanan on lead guitar.   Of these songs, I particularly liked "The Perfect Mark Of Cain" and "Goodbye is Just A Freight Train Coming".   Great start to the evening.

A short break and then Kevin Montgomery took the stage, backed, as he was in Scotland, by Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin from The Mavericks and Pat Buchanan, a top Nashville session man and also a member of the Idle Jets.  Kevin very soon generated a tremendous atmosphere in this small venue, and most people there were fans of his and so knew all the songs.

He kicked off with the title track from his latest album called "Another Long Story".   Many more songs from this album followed and I can honestly say that this album would complement anybody's collection.   Six songs from the album came on the trot and I particularly liked "I Wish I Were Blind" (a Springsteen song), "Angel Tonight" and, a song that he said he murdered when he was here earlier this year, "Broken" - terrific song.

Then there was a song from Pat Buchanan, which he does with the Idle Jets, called "Genius of the Obvious"  - a real rocker of a song.   Genius would be the word to describe Pat as well, what a lead player.   Next, another song from Jeff Finlin, called "Sunday's Forgivin'" and then it was back to Kevin again with a song called "Wishing".  This song was written by Kevin's dad with Buddy Holly.   Kevin told how his dad and Buddy grew up together in Lubbock and had a duo called Buddy & Bob.

Three more songs followed, two of them from the album - "Stumbled", and "Your Kind of Love" - super stuff.   An encore was demanded and we sure got our money's worth on this.   They started with "The Cajun Song" and then Jeff gave us "Loving Cup", Robert gave us a Tom Petty song "American Girl" - some super guitar work from Pat on this one.  Then a very animated Robert went into the Stones' "Not Fade Away"...wow!   Finally it was left for Kevin to finish with a song from his first album, "Fear Nothing".   This brought great applause.

Although Kevin's normal partner Doug Pettibone wasn't with him, the other three gelled well with Kevin.   I can honestly say that I was privileged to witness a show straight out of the top drawer tonight.

Kevin did intimate that he could be doing something with Robert and Paul next year, depending on what the Mavericks do.   So keep on reading the magazine for any information that comes to hand.

Mary Arnold
Country Music and More
October 2000