A blues weekend: Veteran musician James Montgomery leads concert, workshop and 'Harmonica Summit'

This is a busy Cape Cod weekend for well-known bluesman James Montgomery, who will perform in concert Saturday night in Eastham, then host an unusual “Harmonica Summit” Sunday night in West Yarmouth.

Montgomery, described in press material as a “super-harp blues phenomenon,” has toured with Aerosmith, The J. Geils Band, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, The Allman Brothers, the Steve Miller Band and the Johnny Winter Band. Beyond his harmonica playing, he’s a singer, front man, bandleader and composer and has been playing music for more than 50 years.

Now 73, Montgomery regularly puts on concerts in the area, was inducted in 2018 into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame and in September 2021, into the New England Music Hall of Fame.

He was also recently executive producer for the film “Bonnie Blues: James Cotton’s Life in Blues” about one of his musical mentors. The movie screened last summer at the Woods Hole Film Festival, with that event’s founder and executive director being one of the producers on that film.

This weekend, it’s all about the live music.

On Saturday, Nov. 5, Montgomery and his band will be the first in Payomet’s Road Show Series. Producers from the Payomet Performing Arts Center schedule musical acts at various Cape venues after temperatures drop and the North Truro tent closes for the season — aiming to “curate good times across the Cape all year long.”

So Payomet will host the James Montgomery Band playing at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Elks Music Hall, 10 McCoy Road, Eastham. Tickets: $35-$50 ($5 discount for members); https://payomet.org/.

Then on Sunday, Nov. 6, Montgomery has put together an evening featuring two other harmonica players: Peter D. Harper of the Harper and the Midwest Kind band, and national touring artist and harp educator Cheryl Arena of Boston.

The night is titled “The Harmonica Summit,” and the James Montgomery Band will back the featured artists. An announcement of the event says attendees can “expect to see some amazing harmonica battles and some cool blues and roots music.”

Harper told that Times last year that his grandfather, a performer himself, introduced Harper to the harmonica at a young age, starting his interest in wind instruments — and that his grandfather's fandom of blues music rubbed off on Harper, too.

Harper also said he never took harmonica lessons, but just “worked it out” on his own and “came up with (his) own style.”

Other musicians won't have to do that: Montgomery will lead a harmonica workshop at 5 p.m. Sunday before the "summit." Then the show begins at 7 p.m. at the Music Room Gallery & Wine Bar, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth. (Harper and the Midwest Kind will also perform on its own at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5 at the Music Room.)

Tickets and information for the workshop and both shows: https://musicroomcapecodtickets.com/.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: James Montgomery plays 2 Cape Cod concerts: Peter Harper, Cheryl Arena