Bluesdays: Coco Montoya

The Village at Squaw Valley welcomes back Coco Montoya to Bluesdays.

Coco Montoya began playing guitar when he was 13. Because the left-hander didn’t have an instructor teach him how to manipulate his instrument, he taught himself to play with the strings upside down.

A fan of rock and roll, he attended a show with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Iron Butterfly and a blues player he did not know: Albert King.

“It changed my life,” he told Tahoe Onstage.

Not only did King also play his instrument left-handed and upside down, the music he played moved the teenager, who has had a long, successful career as a bluesman, although he has a unique sound.

Earlier in his career, Montoya played drums with Albert Collins, who he studied onstage and at hotel rooms between shows. He later joined John Mayal and the Bluesmakers, a band that has included a long line of guitar greats, including Peter Green and Walter Trout.