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| Charlie Montague
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Charlie Montague VI has more Texas Hill Country rhythm & boots running through his veins than the beer soaked souls floating down the Guadalupe River at near high tide. And he comes by it honest. The Montague family helped settle the area around Bandera Texas in the 1850s and spent the next century and a half banking, ranching, building, entertaining and churching with every generation of any family that came to the Bandera area.
Following WWII, Charlie VI ’s grandfathers formed a band in the late 40s to entertain folks at rodeos, weddings, community events, family gatherings and probably even a funeral or two. Frank Montague Jr. and Jimmy Russell originally formed The Stompeders as a 14 piece western swing band. Charlie’s mother Janett was also a performer as a young lady with some of the configurations of her father and future father-in-law’s bands. She was as powerful of a female singer as any of the national touring artists that would come through Bandera on their way to fame and fortune.
The great friendship between the Montague and Russell families was fully realized when Jimmy’s daughter Janett Russell married Frank Jr.’s son Charlie Montague V in 1975. Although Charlie V couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, his love for the Milk Cow Blues and other western swing tunes carried him all over the dance floor. He loved the musical heritage of their combined family.
Charlie V was a rancher, banker, cowboy and highly decorated helicopter gunner in Vietnam who succumbed to Agent Orange induced cancer in 1982 when Charlie VI was only 5. As a young child he would stand beside his dad as they drove to town sing Eddie Rabbitt songs and whatever else he had memorized from the radio or TV shows including The Dukes Of Hazzard.
After his father passed away Charlie VI began to help his mother in her western wear store and tagged along with his many aunts and uncles to music functions performed by his mother and grandfathers. The Stompeders -and a later version called Los Gringos- as well as other musical groupings were made up of local doctors, butchers, locksmiths, attorneys and bankers playing everything from Western Swing to Conjunto.
Over the years Bandera has become a cultural hub of the western music world. From Bob Wills and Ray Price playing the local dancehalls to Willie Nelson moving his entire “Family” to Bandera from Nashville in the early 70s, this particular portion of the Texas Hill Country often served the basic ingredients for the formation of the next major movement in music. As Willie and all of the related pickers, carnies, ex-cons & future cons descended on the Texas hill country the jet stream was picking up moisture from the Medina River and the perfect storm was born. Plentiful clubs, saloons and honkytonks with willing ears and disappearing bar tabs coupled with “south-side” money men and risk tolerant bankers provided the fuel to get this musical bonfire started.
It was not unusual to see a tour bus from any of several country music legends on the Montague Ranch impounded for a time as the Montague’s bank attempted to work out loans with the entertainers or their managers or future ex-wives. Or to hear stories of Frank Montague Jr. digging money out of his pocket to help a picker who had lost his equipment in a wreck, fire, divorce or bar bet.
The musical heritage in the Montague family was being extended by Charlie VI’s brother as well as several of his cousins as Charlie VI grew up. At 16, he finally borrowed his brother's guitar and learned a few chords from his cousins Frank and Steele. Now his whole world would become the stage. And Charlie VI’s world was pasture parties, bonfires, campfires and any other gathering of friends and foes.
Charlie would spontaneously write and sing songs about whoever was present - usually ripping on them for something they had either done or was rumored to have done -or should have done |
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| Randy Rogers Band, Casey Donahew Band, Roger Creager, Kyle Park, Johnny Cooper, Bart Crow Band, Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights, Bleu Edmonson, Rich OToole, Mark McKinney, Adam Hood, Larry Joe Taylor, No Justice, Cody Johnson Band, Tejas Brothers, Kyle Bennett Band, Buckshot Bradley, William Clark Green, Zack Walther Band, Six Market Blvd, Richard Leigh, Deryl Dodd, Dave Perez, Brandon Rhyder, Ali Dee - 5/17/2012, 5/18/2012, 5/19/2012 |
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Crudefest - Midland, Texas |
| Chris Allbright Band, Curtis Grimes, Billy Joe Shaver, Matt Wayne, Taylor Hodak Band, Jon Wolfe, Shane Howard Band, Chris Low, Darby Ledbetter, Gordon Collier Band, Kayla Ray, Matt Wayne and Company - 5/25/2012, 5/26/2012, 5/27/2012 |
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Moonlight Music Festival - Meridian, Texas |
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