Plenty of people can claim to be influenced by the likes of Jackson Browne, Tom Waits, and JD Souther but not many can truthfully say that they started out playing the same venues and bars, performing on the same stages, the same bills as such icons. Mark Montijo can. And to be fair, the implications that he learned his trade by working such a rich musical seam of influence and inspiration, not to mention the fact that such a timeline means that he has been in the game, on and off, for fifty-plus years, is born out by the music he makes.
Just listening to the opener of his new one, “Lost Art,” backs up everything, a song that the likes of James Taylor himself would probably love to lay claim to and a great way to kick off the album. The title track is both gentle and gently humourous, “Picture This” is sonically picturesque and purposefully poetic, and “Horse Named Lefty” is a fun and nostalgic piece, evoking a youngster’s thoughts of what their future might hold.
Singer-songwriters are everywhere; they have never gone out of fashion, nor should they. Okay, nine out of ten are doing the same old same old, but that one that remains is always worth the effort it takes to find them. Mark Montijo is one of those one out of tens.
Did I say one out of ten? Actually, Mark is more like one out of a hundred!
