“’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ That’s what Albert Collins taught me,” says the award-winning guitar virtuoso and soul-deep singer Coco Montoya. The self-taught, left-handed Montoya mastered his craft under Collins’ tutelage. Incorporating lessons learned from his mentors, the iconic Collins (for whom he originally drummed), and UK legend John Mayall, Montoya puts his own stamp onto every song he performs. Since his first solo album in 1995 (which won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist), Montoya’s endlessly inventive guitar work and passionate, hard-hitting vocals have kept him at the top of the blues world. With his new Alligator Records album, Writing On The Wall (his sixth for the label), Montoya delivers what he is already calling one of the best records he’s ever made. For the very first time on Alligator, he decided to bring his road-tested band—noted keyboardist and songwriter Jeff Paris (Keb’ Mo’, Bill Withers), bassist Nathan Brown, and drummer Rena Beavers—into the studio with him. Between the camaraderie of the long-time bandmates and the sheer talent of all involved, the results have left Coco, in his words, “over the moon.”

Produced by Grammy Award-winner Tony Braunagel (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and co-produced by Jeff Paris, Writing On The Wall is a tour-de-force of memorable, hook-filled songs, sung with passion and fueled by equally memorable, top shelf musicianship. The 13 tracks include five written or co-written by Montoya. The set opens with a signature, career-defining performance of the soul-baring I Was Wrong, written for Coco by songwriter Dave Steen. From the blistering Save It For The Next Fool to the enjoy now/pay later philosophy of Jeff Paris’ (I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It to the riveting reinvention of Lonnie Mack’s Stop, Montoya delivers each song with heart-pounding emotion. Special guest Lee Roy Parnell adds his well-seasoned slide guitar to the smoldering A Chip And A Chair. And Coco’s friend, guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of late Alligator star Lonnie Brooks), joins in for some good-natured fun on the droll Baby, You’re A Drag and adds his blistering playing to the searing cover of Bobby Bland’s You Got Me.

“I am so proud of this one,” Montoya says of Writing On The Wall. “We recorded in Jeff Paris’ studio and everything just gelled together. And the band inspired me; they all gave extra effort at every turn. Jeff, Nathan and Rena played so great, they ended up making me play even harder. They made me sound better than I am!”

Henry “Coco” Montoya was born in Santa Monica, California, on October 2, 1951, and raised in a working-class family. Growing up, Coco immersed himself in his parents’ record collection. He listened to big band jazz, salsa, doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. His first love was drums; he acquired a kit at age 11. He got a guitar two years later. “I’m sure the Beatles had something to do with this,” Montoya recalls. “I wanted to make notes as well as beats.” But guitar was his secondary instrument. Montoya turned his love of drumming into his profession, playing in a number of area rock bands while still in his teens and becoming an in-demand drummer.

In 1969, Montoya saw Albert King opening a Creedence Clearwater Revival/Iron Butterfly concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was transformed. “After King got done playing,” says Montoya, “my life was changed. When he played, the music went right into my soul. It grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever affected me to this level. He showed me what music and playing the blues were all about. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

The next chapter of Montoya’s story was kick-started by a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with legendary bluesman Albert Collins. Montoya says, “Albert was coming through Los Angeles and needed to borrow my drum set, which I left at the club where he was going to be playing. I went down to see his show that night and it just tore my head off. The thing that I had seen and felt with Albert King came pouring back on me when I saw Albert Collins.” A short time later, Collins hired Montoya as his band’s drummer. With Albert mentoring Coco on the guitar during the band’s downtime, Coco soon became Collins’ second guitarist. “We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a father to me,” says Coco, who often slept at Collins’ home. When Collins declared Montoya his “son,” it was the highest praise and affection he could offer. In return, Montoya learned everything he could from the legendary Master of the Telecaster.

Needing a more regular paycheck, Montoya left Collins’ band after two years and took a job tending bar, jamming on weekends at Los Angeles clubs. One day, legendary British musician John Mayall heard Coco playing Otis Rush’s All Your Love (I Miss Loving) onstage. Soon after, Mayall called on Montoya to join his famous Bluesbreakers. Filling the shoes of previous Bluesbreaker guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor would not be easy, but Montoya knew he could not pass up the opportunity to play with another legend. For the next ten years he toured the world and recorded with Mayall on seven albums, soaking up the experience of life on the road and in the recording studio.

Montoya’s recorded debut as a bandleader came with 1995’s Gotta Mind To Travel (originally on Silvertone Records in England and later issued in the USA on Blind Pig Records). The album became an instant fan favorite. Blues enthusiasts, radio programmers and critics sent praise from all corners. The album immediately made it clear that Montoya ranked among the best players on the contemporary scene. Two more Blind Pig albums followed, and Coco was well on his way.

In 2000, Montoya’s Alligator debut, Suspicion, quickly became the best-selling album of his career, earning regular radio airplay on over 120 stations nationwide. Montoya’s fan base exploded. After two more highly successful and massively popular Alligator releases—2002’s Can’t Look Back and 2007’s Dirty Deal—Montoya signed with Ruf Records, cutting both a live and a studio album. Returning to Alligator with 2017’s Hard Truth and 2019’s Coming In Hot, the guitar master continued to blaze his trail. “Montoya unleashes one career-topping performance after another,” declared the UK’s Blues Matters. Still an indefatigable road warrior, Montoya continues to tour virtually nonstop, bringing audiences to their feet from New York to New Orleans to Chicago to San Francisco. Across the globe, he’s performed in countries including Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Canada. Now, with the dynamic Writing On The Wall and a tour calendar busting at the seams, Coco Montoya is as excited as he’s ever been to perform the new songs live with his burning-hot band. Montoya’s well-earned reputation as an eye-popping live performer precedes him. Vintage Guitar states, “Coco keeps getting better and better. He plays with fire and passion rarely seen in this day and age.” Billboard declares, “In a world of blues guitar pretenders, Coco Montoya is the real McCoy. He exudes power and authenticity. Be prepared to get scorched by the real thing.”

Bio: Ronnie Baker Brooks

Chicago guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Ronnie Baker Brooks is one of the city’s—and the world’s—most undeniably talented and electrifying bluesmen. Ronnie was born into Chicago blues royalty as the son of legendary multiple GRAMMY Award nominee, Blues Hall Of Famer, and longtime Alligator Records recording star Lonnie Brooks. He is among the few contemporary blues artists who learned his craft directly from many of the genre’s icons, including Albert Collins, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor and, most significantly, his father. “I’m blessed to have played with and learned from the best. I’m carrying them within me,” he says of all the legends he knew growing up and the journey he’s been on.

With his new Alligator Records debut, Blues In My DNA, Ronnie delivers an up-to-the-minute, organic masterpiece. The album, the fifth of his career, is firmly rooted in the blues with Ronnie incorporating his own brand of rock, funk and soul to the mix. “I just play what I feel,” he says. “It’s all from the heart.” Produced by famed studio wizard Jim Gaines (who has produced Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison and many others), Blues In My DNA is a career-defining statement from Baker Brooks, with each of the 11 original songs its own chapter in his ever-evolving story

Blues In My DNA effortlessly moves from the funkified rocker I’m Feeling You to the not-quite-sanctified, old-school blues Robbing Peter To Pay Paul to the deep Memphis soul ballad Accept My Love to the epic, crowd-pleasing, guitar-driven Stuck On Stupid. The autobiographical title track, a song Ronnie describes as “a bridge between me and my audience,” is the album’s centerpiece, the passionate guitar solos underlining the lyrics’ story of triumphing over racism, poverty and glass ceilings. “I ain’t complaining,” he sings, “I’m just explaining,” before declaring, “I got love in my blood, the blues in my DNA.”

For Ronnie, the process of writing songs for Blues In My DNA was as fun and exciting as playing live. “I love writing as much as performing. I love watching an idea become a song, then a song become something people can relate to, and then sing along with. And I always keep it authentic to myself. Everyone can feel it and be familiar with it. I’m here to build bridges, not walls.”

Ronnie Baker Brooks was born in 1967 in Chicago. He received his first guitar from his famous father at age nine and learned the instrument as he got older, sharing his time between playing basketball and focusing on his music. After high school, he joined his father’s band—as a roadie. He earned his way slowly up the ladder, listening, watching and learning. At one show, Koko Taylor pulled him aside as he was loading the gear into the van and told him, “You learn from your daddy everything you can. And one day, it’ll be up to you to carry the blues forward.”

Lonnie eventually allowed Ronnie to play bass with the band before bringing him on as his full-time second guitarist. Ronnie made his recording debut on Lonnie’s Live From Chicago: Bayou Lightning Strikes album in 1988. In 1991, he hit the road as part of The Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour band, backing Lonnie, Elvin Bishop, and Katie Webster. Each night, he’d join them, along with Koko Taylor and Lil’ Ed Williams, for unforgettable blues jams.

In the summer of 1993, Ronnie joined Lonnie, Koko and Junior Wells for the B.B. King Blues Festival Tour, traveling the country. He watched King perform again and again. One night after the show, King told Ronnie, “Son, I’m watching you watch me. You learn everything you can from all of us, especially your dad. He’s as good as me or better; we just have different styles.” Ronnie performed with his father for 12 years, gaining valuable experience and sharing stages with artists including Taj Mahal, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and many others. During this time, his guitar skills continued to grow along with his songwriting and performing confidence.

Among the many lessons Ronnie learned growing up was to forge his own identity, to write his own songs, to play his own brand of blues and not to imitate anyone else. Willie Dixon taught him the importance of “delivering” the song, so the people know you believe it. Albert Collins, almost a second father to Ronnie, would say, “Take what you like from what we do and make it you.”

In 1998, when the time was right and with Lonnie’s blessing, Baker Brooks formed his own label, Watchdog Records, and released three solo albums over the next eight years: Golddigger in 1998, Take Me Witcha in 2001, and The Torch in 2006. On all three releases, Ronnie worked with and learned countless studio and production lessons from JellyBean Johnson (Prince, The Time), with positive response to Ronnie’s music coming from Prince himself.

In 2008, Ronnie produced and played on blues legend Eddy Clearwater’s Alligator debut, West Side Strut, helping to bring one of his mentors to a new generation of fans. His next solo album, 2017’s, Times Have Changed, was produced by drummer Steve Jordan (The Rolling Stones, Robert Cray) and issued on the Provogue label. The UK’s Record Collector magazine said, “Baker Brooks plays a heady blend of blues, soul and funk...an upbeat cocktail of guts, groove, stinging guitar work and soulful vocals.” The Blues Foundation has recognized Ronnie’s talent with a total of six Blues Music Award nominations.

Among his many blues and soul mentors and friends, Ronnie has also worked closely with rocker Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd & The Monsters. The two friends have written, toured and recorded together, with Mohr and Brooks co-writing All True Man for Blues In My DNA.

Since he was a teen, Ronnie has toured the world, first with his dad and then leading his own band. He’s built his reputation as a white-hot performer one gig at a time. His eye-popping guitar work, soulful vocals, fireball energy and huge, crowd-pleasing personality keep his fans on the edge of their seats. In addition to performing at both Obama presidential inaugurations, he has played major festivals and concert halls across the U.S., Canada, the UK and Europe, as well as in Brazil and China. He’s appeared at Poland’s Rawa Blues Festival, Spain’s Cazorla Blues Festival, Canada’s Mt. Tremblant Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, Memphis In May, The North Atlantic Blues Festival, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and many more. In 2024, Ronnie, along with his friend and label-mate Shemekia Copeland, opened the famous Chicago Blues Festival (the 4th time he’s appeared as a headliner), with a roof-raising performance. Then, four days later, he helped close the festival out—along with Copeland, his guitarist brother Wayne Baker Brooks and harmonica giant Billy Branch—joining headliner Buddy Guy at Buddy’s request.

Like all the great blues artists before him, Ronnie Baker Brooks has, through hard work, perseverance and gritty determination—along with his prodigious, natural talent and charisma—earned his place in the upper echelons of the blues world. Today, Ronnie Baker Brooks stands tall as a blisteringly innovative guitarist, an endlessly inventive songwriter and an intensely soulful vocalist.

Ronnie Baker Brooks may have been born a blues prince, but he never received any royal treatment. “Dad set me up for today,” Ronnie explains. “He always told me to put the time in, study, practice, get better. I started my music career as his roadie. He wouldn’t let me play onstage with him until I earned it, and until he was certain playing music was what I truly wanted to do. I grew up witnessing and learning from the legends of the blues. I’m excited to continue to create Chicago blues as part of my family legacy and our shared history. I’ll always carry on and represent the blues in everything I do. Dad started the fire, Albert poured the gas on it, and Koko put the grill on.” Now, with Blues In My DNA, it’s time to feast.