Ray Montford drives a motorcycle and plays the electric guitar — but don’t dwell on the stereotype.
“I wouldn’t want people assuming they’ll be hearing something brash and loud,” said the musician with a laugh.
His instrumental music is actually inspired by Buddhist philosophy and his love of the open road, and has been called soulful and seductive. It’s moody, introspective and even emotional.
According to Montford, who’s on a rare Western tour that stops on Wednesday at The Matchbox, he’s not one of those one of those ace finger-style guitar players, or high-speed electric guitar noodlers. “I tried that but it wasn’t totally where my heart is.”
Instead, he plays quieter, melodic tunes that are patterned with different rhythms and textures. “I wanted to create more of a band-like sound,” said the Toronto-based musician, who’s looking forward to being inspired by the Rocky Mountains.
Montford believes the key to his music, which combines elements of folk, country, blues and jazz, isn’t his playing style as much as his compositions — which are really inspired by the immensity of Canada.
“I’m inspired by the large, landscape-y openness of it,” he said — although some of his influence also comes from “over the pond,” from British bands including Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
Ottawa-born Montford first began studying the guitar at age 12, but quickly ditched it to become “a delinquent teenager.”
At age 18, he took up the guitar again on his own terms — and this time, he got serious.
The bilingual musician first began picking up various riffs from vinyl records. He then studied audio engineering, production and performance at Fanshawe College in London, Ont., and did session work on the side.
Montford, who had become an accompanist for The Rankins and Mary Jane Lamond, released his acclaimed breakthrough world music album, Shed Your Skin, in 1997. This was followed by a more intimate, acoustic album, 2000’s One Step Closer, and 2003’s Many Roads, which shifted towards electric blues, roots and jazz.
Montford’s next CD, A Fragile Balance, completed his transition to electric guitar, while retaining his earlier atmospherics. It garnered him the 2007 “Instrumentalist to Watch” title from the Galaxie music network.
His latest digital release, Live Sessions, features more “muscular” live versions of music from A Fragile Balance. Three videos from this release, which is available through his website, raymontford.com and the U.S. label Candyrat Records, have already received a combined 50,000 hits on YouTube.
Montford’s most recent compositions were born during a six-month period of recuperation from injuries he sustained when his bicycle was hit by a car in 2006. Montford confessed it was the second time he had broken his hip — in 2004 he had been laid up for six months after landing on his other hip while skating.
“A lot had happened to me in the last five years and I had time to do a lot of reflecting,” said the 46-year-old guitarist.
During this time, Montford realized all the truisms he had ever heard — of not sweating the small stuff and not taking the good things in his life for granted — were well worth observing. “I started looking at life through a slightly different lens, through a different coloured lens, than before.”
And writing music, he said, suddenly became not just a creative process, but therapeutic.
Montford performs with drummer Gary Craig and bassist John Dymond at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 from Ticketmaster or The Matchbox box office.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com