TONIGHT AND SUNDAY: Dan Montgomery returns

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TONIGHT AND SUNDAY: Dan Montgomery returns

POSTED: Friday, November 4, 2011, 12:00 PM

Filed Under: Music | Philly Bands Show

“Do you know it costs five bucks to get out of Jersey now?” I asked Dan Montgomery by phone as the band rolled into Roanoake where they were gigging a couple nights back. “No way!” he exclaimed, as we eased into a discussion of the level of extortion his boyhood pals from Jersey would have to come up with to see him. It was ever thus, triggering a stream of consciousness recall of his boyhood, when mom and dad abandoned Cobbs Creek for Pennsauken. They were the ones who had to travel for a visit. “One uncle never did come over, cause he refused to pay the 50 cents for the bridge!” Yeah, Montgomery roots down and back on both sides.

The roots go so far that while Montgomery and associates have been touring out of his present home in Memphis for a year behind his most recent studio recording, You Will Never Be a Bird, they have introduced a new recording made here in Philly. It’s a little artisinal EP that Montgomery says was created with assistance from his friend, Jan Bohan, at his last World Cafe gig. “She’s a great taper! We’re selling copies at shows, calling it the first of the official bootleg series.” If you miss him in town he promises to have copies on his website shortly, snickering, “Just in time for holiday giving.”

There must be a world of unofficial bootlegs floating around the area. Before Montgomery followed the love of his life to Memphis a decade or so ago, he was a fixture on the local scene. Anne Deeney, former boss lady of the Perimeter II coffee house, squealed with delight when she heard he was returning. Bars in the area will recall booking the mysteriously named (ask ’em) Del Pez. That group will enjoy a reunion on Sunday at Fergie’s as part of a benefit for leukemia research, honoring the late Aldo Jones. Tonight will be another sort of reunion with Mike Vogelman (bass) joining Montgomery and his regular touring partner, Robert Mache.

Clearly Montgomery is glad to get a chance to play with old colleagues whenever he can, but Memphis has been good to him. “In Jersey it’s just about illegal to play your own songs. In Memphis they look down on you if you are doing covers. Unless you’re working Beale Street, and there all you get play is Mustang Sally — and I don’t know Mustang Sally.” For those new to the breadth of Montgomery’s music let’s say if the term Americana didn’t exist they’d have to invent it to explain how widely he ranges. A simple little waltz for an imprisoned player, a nod to Easy Rider rocking a tale of our own The Wheels of Soul, references to the seedy side of South Jersey, yeah you can take the boy out Philly but good luck uprooting all those experiences. My personal fave, like a soundtrack to a highly atmospheric, vaguely threatening western is all spoken, contrasting nicely with the title, “The Winter When We Didn’t Speak.” Haven’t we all been there?

Dan Montgomery plays Fri., Nov. 4, 9 p.m., $13, wit Ben Vaughn, World Cafe Live, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com; and Sun., Nov. 6, 5 p.m., free, Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom St., 215-928-8118, fergies.com.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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