MusicMakers
Ryan Montbleau Found His Musical Calling While Battling Homesickness at College
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Friday, January 2, 2009
How many guys pick up a guitar in college to impress a girl, to get over a girl or to mope about a girl who won't give him the time of day? (Answer: more guys than empty beer cans left on the lawn of fraternity houses on a Sunday morning.)
But then, how many guys pick up the guitar in college, as Ryan Montbleau did at Villanova University, homesick and missing his girlfriend in Massachusetts, only to discover a talent and a calling?
Far fewer.
After starting college as a chemical engineering major, Montbleau, now 31, picked up his roommate's "really nice guitar" and decided to go a more artistic route. He changed his major to English and started writing songs and playing for his dorm mates, albeit shyly.
"I was scared to play in front of everyone," he said. It wasn't until the second semester of his senior year that he worked up the nerve to start singing, too.
If you've never heard of the Ryan Montbleau Band or its music (David Gray meets G. Love), you're not alone. The band is not playing big venues, selling millions of CDs or grabbing the attention of music critics. But on the other hand, they're not whittling away in obscurity playing coffeehouses and bookstores either. The band stops at Iota tonight.
Montbleau, who calls himself a "lucky boy" on the band's Web site, is a working musician. On the road 200 days a year, he earns every fan he gets.
"There are times when any job is a job even though it's beautiful and I'm lucky to be able to do it," he said.
Fame and fortune, while not necessarily a bad thing, are not why Montbleau got into the "funny" music industry, as he calls it. And he definitely wasn't looking for a quick rise to the top.
"I guess I had sort of dreams of playing some of the bigger shows, but I knew there were no short cuts," he said.
He took it slow, taking a job at the House of Blues in Boston after college, selling tickets and T-shirts. "It was all gradual. . . . I had to see what the hell went on." He discovered that club owners can be crazy and the life of a musician unstable and unhealthy. But he still wanted to play, anywhere, anytime. A gig at the House of Blues one night would be followed by a gig at TGI Friday's the next.
"I was taking every gig I could get," he said.
Montbleau reconnected with a drummer friend and started playing with a band that now includes keyboard, tuba and viola. He caught the attention of a manager in 2003 who started booking the band's shows with a strategy: Play the Boston venues, gain fans, then little by little, spread from there. Today they can land decent gigs from Vermont to Virginia.
Strategy or no, Montbleau said, "it's a matter of really making stuff that people want to hear." And yet, (you have to ask) doesn't a talented, hardworking musician ever get frustrated with all the bad pop music out there getting all the attention?
"I try not to go there too much in my brain," he said.
Montbleau did tour with Martin Sexton last year, "my number one sort of hero," Montbleau said. The Boston Globe, as well as numerous small publications, have written about Montbleau and the band, and the frontman says he is excited to play Iota, having heard a lot about the venue.
For now, Nissan Pavilion, millions of records sold and critical acclaim will have to wait, and that's okay with Montbleau. His dreams are far more basic: A tour manager would be nice, some more dough and, he says: "I want to get better, as a musician and as a band. And I would like to continue to grow. The goal of anybody is to have as many people that want to hear [your music] be able to hear it. I would like to continue to play shows and have people show up and have a good time with them. I want to do this forever."
That's the plight of a working musician.
Ryan Montbleau Band Appearing tonight at Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. Show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets: $12, 703-522-8340 or http:/
