With a name like Tim Montana – yes, it’s his real name – the Nashville based singer-songwriter was perhaps always destined for a career in country music. But it’s safe to say Montana isn’t trading on his name alone. After being convinced to move from LA to Nashville by producer Johnny Hiland, he dropped his debut album Iron Horse – which Hiland played guitar on and provided backing vocals for, and produced – in 2007 to positive reviews.

Montana got his first big break when he met US TV star David Letterman before a show in Montana, with the talk show host personally inviting him to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman, where Montana performed his song Butte, America in 2008. His second big break came after a chance encounter with ZZ Top founder Billy Gibbons, the two then collaborating on the track This Beard Came Here To Party which was famously adopted by Major League Baseball side the Boston Red Sox.

Montana – who proves his superstar status by counting Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and extreme sports star Travis Pastrana among his close friends – followed up Iron Horse with Tim Montana and the Shrednecks in 2016, and his third album American Thread dropped earlier this year. His latest release is the four-track EP Cars on Blocks, which has been produced by the award-winning producer Michael Knox and focuses on Montana’s own upbringing in Butte, Montana.

Opening track and new single Do It Fast begins with some thumping drums and a big riff and doesn’t let up, packing in some suitably hedonistic lyrics (“The key to hard living is to do it fast”), while River Kids is a slower, more introspective number built around some finger-picked acoustic guitars and filled with plenty of tales from home (“There’s a first beer / And a first kiss / And where my first truck / Hit a first ditch / Where boys like me call home”).

Stronger Than You is a bluesy, brooding affair which sees Montana cut loose with his vocals, pushing his voice to it’s rawest edges, and it sounds fantastic. Title track Cars On Blocks is probably the most obviously ‘country’ track here, and a fun one at that. Ultimately though, the real success of the EP is that Montana manages to turn his skills to so many different genres, handling each with real skill.

Cars On Blocks tracklist:

1. Do It Fast

2. River Kids

3. Stronger Than You

4. Cars On Blocks

Watch the official music video for Do It Fast here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.