Coco Montoya

Coco Montoya (b. Henry Montoya, October 2nd,1951 in Santa Monica, CA) is a blues guitarist and former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Montoya's career began in the mid-70s when Albert Collins asked him to join his band as drummer. Collins took Montoya under his wing and taught him his "icy hot" guitar style. The two remained friends even after Montoya left Collins' band. In the early 80s John Mayall heard Montoya playing guitar in a Los Angeles bar. Soon after Mayall asked Montoya to join the newly reformed Bluesbreakers. He remained a member of the band for 10 years. In the early 90s Montoya decided it was time to go out on his own. He has recorded several highly acclaimed blues CDs. In 1995 he appeared with the Cate Brothers for the resumption of their recording career on their release, Radioland. [1] In 2002, he featured on the Bo Diddley tribute album Hey Bo Diddley - A Tribute!, performing the song "Pills"... Montoya is left-handed but plays "upside-down right-handed" guitar. In other words he can play a guitar strung for right-handed playing, with bass strings at the upper edge of the fretboard and treble strings at the lower edge, rotating the guitar so he stops the strings with his right-hand and picks them with his left hand. Thus for him the treble strings are at the upper edge, and the bass strings are at the lower edge.