"The Wrigglies"- includes Tim Riley and Rose Marie Casagrande(vocals), and Ben Henry(vocals, bass, and acoustic guitar ======================Amber Lucille - Amber Lucille(lead vocals, guitar),Trent Parker(drums, vocals), Brian Shirk(bass vocals), and Tomasi John Montana(slide/lead guitar, vocals)
=============== The County - Tomasi(guitar, vocals), Ben Henry(bass, vocals), Matt Isom(drums, vocals)
Influences
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and Harry Smith, JJ Cale, Huell Howser, The Faces, Julius Kesler, Jesse Ed Davis, Gary Snyder, Neil Young, HST, Keith Richards, Rick Danko, Warren Zevon, Jerry Garcia, Dale Watson, Taj Mahal, Son House, Dickey and Duane....
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You can listen to Tomasi's influences on his free internet radio station at www.last.fm/music/Tomasi+John+Montana
Sounds Like
Blues, Rock, Americana, Roots, Alt-Country, Singer-Songwriter, Literate, Sliding and scratchy voiced
Tomasi John Montana grew up in a small town in the foothills of the Northern California Sierra Nevadas where he played baseball for the same high school as his great grandfather. He then spent the next five years playing around California with “The County” in the bay area, Sacramento, and Amador County, but mostly based in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego. He also managed to travel around North America a couple times in car and greyhound bus. “During this five year period I did a lot of reading, a lot of driving up and down 99 and 101, a lot of drinking in Ocean Beach, Berkeley, S.F. and the middle of nowhere.” This period led to over a hundred songs, a few solo and band demos, and a lot of playing in empty coffee houses, bars, and garages. After a Hemmingway like trip through Europe which included a few nights slept in Hyde Park, utter strangeness in Paris, and common debauchery in Amsterdam, Tomasi ended up back at his mom’s house with six dollars to his name, but a plan as well.
“I packed up my old Chevy truck, and my old Border Collie, and drove to Scott County, Tennessee, which is an extremely rural, poor, and Southern Baptist area of the Appalachians on the Kentucky border. I lived in a cabin in the woods with no TV, cell phones, computers, or neighbors. I didn’t know it was a dry county, or that there were dry counties for that matter.” While out there building houses for Habitat for Humanity Tomasi had to dig one grave for his dog, one for his co-workers mother, spent one night in jail and a couple coon hunting, and stumbled out of a truck that rolled three times and flipped twice. He also developed his slide technique, learned the 5 string open G tuning, and brewed beer. “Except for a few nights in Nashville, Knoxville, and Mobile, I basically lived like a monk for a year. Just reading, hiking, playing a lot of guitar, and meeting a lot of characters. In that cabin I began to develop my tone, and learn to write more basic country and blues songs, basically avoiding minor chords.”
Tomasi then headed to Austin Texas to join the world again. His time in the South had made his music much more grounded in old blues and country albums. “I felt closer to the root.”
Once in Texas Tomasi thought three names was needed and moved into a house with three girls. He began working on what would later become “The Wrigglies” and soaking up the Texas music of Waylon, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Dale Watson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Doug Sahm. “Not the Nashville Country, or the the Texas frat boy country.” A year later Tomasi went back to living with dogs and finished “The Wrigglies” with some help from some friends.
Meanwhile while waiting for a friends band to play at Stubbs, Tomasi and his future fiancé Rose were drinking beer and rum across the street at Headhunters when Rose struck up a conversation with Amber Lucille. A few weeks later he joined the band and added slide and lead guitar, and sang a couple of his own now and then. After over a year of playing Austin and Texas pubs, clubs, bars, hill country dance halls, and even a rodeo and a prison Tomasi moved back to East Tennessee to enjoy seasons and record in a house with wooden floors.
Hello, it's me, Ruby Jane.To those who don't know me, I am a 14 year old fiddler, songwriter. I have some songs posted that are fresh out of the studio. Let me know if you like the new songs..be one of the first to hear, even before they are released!Thanks! new videos too! Ruby Jane
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