Todd Montgomery

Malibu, CA

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About

BUY THE NEW FERNWOOD ALBUM "ALMERIA" FOR ONLY $12.00 plus shipping from CD BABY!

GUITAR PLAYER Magazine, June 2008 issue

"Fernwood is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalists Todd Montgomery and Gayle
Ellett. The former plays Irish bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, and sitar, while the
later plays Greek bouzouki, upright and electric basses, guitar, oud, ruan,
bulbul tarang, gobijen, dotara, Fender Rhodes, harmonium, and organ. The two
have scored numerous film soundtracks both together and individually, and it
shows. The songs are wonderfully melodic and emotionally direct, the diverse
instruments are expertly layered, and dynamics are an essential aspect of the
orchestrations. Acoustic stringed instruments constructed of wood predominate,
and timbre and sonority suggest place and idiom as strongly as the actual
compositional structures. Middle Eastern, Asian, African, and European motifs
are masterfully interwoven with Americana to form a luscious yet rootsy
imaginary idiom that is intriguing, uplifting, and at once familiar and exotic."

Here's a review of FERNWOOD: Almeria by Andy Read of the DPRP - Dutch Progressive Rock Page

Fernwood is a new project by the composer team of Todd Montgomery and Gayle Ellett and Almeria is their debut album. Both of them have been composing and performing music professionally, for over thirty years. Gayle has appeared on more than 50 CDs and is one of the mainstays of Djam Karet. Todd is a specialist in Irish and American music, having played on the soundtrack of the movie The Veronica Guerin Story.
The concept behind this album should be enough to tempt any lover of acoustic music to click straight across to CDBaby and grab a copy of this album for a mere $12. The idea is beautiful in its simplicity: All the music is played by hand, on instruments made out of wood.
Recorded in their Malibu studio, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, their music is a reflection of their lives in Southern California as well as the previous work they've done in the areas of film and TV composition, traditional world music, rock and jazz.
Twelve instrumental tunes; contemporary yet traditional. Their music has a strong global feel. By combining elements of pastoral acoustic music, with the sounds of traditional American, Irish, Eastern European, Asian, and Middle Eastern music, they have created a hybrid that is uniquely their own.
Their cinematic music blends the sounds of Greek and Irish bouzouki, sitar, acoustic guitar, Chinese ruan, Turkish cumbus, Moroccan oud, mandolin, harmonium, gimbri, rababa, bulbul tarang, jal tarang, dilruba, dotara, gopichand, upright bass and rhodes piano. That exhaustive mix is what separates this album from any acoustic instrumental record I've ever heard. The instruments are used in different combinations across the 12 songs. As a result there is a such a wide range of sounds, textures and energies that each stands as a wholly individual listening experience. As a listener I was kept enthralled, as each track opened new possibilities. An enchanting, beautiful and captivating aural pleasure.
Conclusion: 9 out of 10
ANDY READ

BIO Information: Todd Montgomery

While attending College in Northern California in the 1980s, Todd learned his
chops in the nightly ritual of front-porch folk jams. There he switched from
guitar to mandolin as his main instrument in learning songs in the American Folk
tradition.

Returning to Southern California, he started to play professionally as a
bluegrass mandolin player in the band High on Grass while also playing electric guitar
in the alternative country band Already Sweaty. All the while, he was composing
original mandolin art-music in his own studio.

In the mid-1990s his focused switched from Bluegrass to Traditional Irish music
and the Irish Bouzouki. He studied with the fiddle player/teacher, Cait Reed and joined
George Lockwoods dual-mandolin band Buzzworld. Buzzworld performed from San Diego
to Santa Barbara. One of the highlight of Todd's journey into Irish music was
performing at the Performing Arts Center in Cerritos, California with the world famous
Chieftains.

In the late 1990s Todd teamed up with Irishman Kim Carroll to form Madra, a
band that placed traditional Celtic tunes in an improvisational rock context.
For special gigs, they were joined by Bonnie Raitts bass player, Hutch
Hutchinson, and Suzanne Teng of Mystic Journey, and Brendon O'Halloran of the
Topanga Mountain Treeo. Todd and Kim played on the sound-track to
big-budget Feature film Chasing the Dragon, The Veronica Guerin
Story.

In search of greater improvisational knowledge, Todd decided to learn to play
traditional Indian music on the sitar and had the extreme fortune of finding Ravi Shankars
oldest student Hari Har Rao (who is also the director of the Music Circle of
Pasadena),as his new sitar teacher. Working with Hari, Todd studied Indian Ragas
for several years. Meanwhile, he was performing around Los Angeles accompanying
singer-songwriter Danny Kelly on mandolin and sitar.

Todd Montgomery's current composing/recording/soundtrack project is a
collaboration with Gayle Ellett of Djam Karet, entitled FERNWOOD. On this project, Todd is
happily engaged in creating original music that spans the many influences of his
previous thirty years of professional musical experience, including a mix of
American and European Folk, Psychedelic Rock, Bluegrass, Traditional Celtic, and
Classical Indian. Gayle and Todd are grateful for the mixing and mastering wizardry of
Wayne Yentis.

ABOUT THE MUSIC OF FERNWOOD:
Todd Montgomery and Gayle Ellett are currently exploring new areas of folk-psyche music.
Contemporary yet Traditional, their music has a strong pan-cultural feel. By combining
elements of Pastoral Acoustic Psychedelic music, with the sounds of Traditional American,
Irish, Eastern European, Asian, and Middle Eastern music, they have created a hybrid style
that is uniquely their own.

Their music has a strong autobiographical feel that accurately portrays a sense of who they
are and where they live. Recorded in their Malibu studio, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, their
music is a reflection of their lives in Southern California as well as the previous work they've
done in the areas of Film and TV composition, Traditional World music, Rock and Jazz.

Currently, they are working with numerous film directors from around the world, on a wide
variety of projects. These include artistic, commercial, and NGO films from: Holland, India, Brazil,
UAE, Finland, South Africa, Thailand, Australia, Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, New Zealand, Italy,
France, UK, Belize, Indonesia, Cuba, and Mexico.

SOME FERNWOOD REVIEWS:
Belgium's famous PSYCHEDELICFOLK.com said "Fernwood is a musical entity of two musicians
who feel each other's essence for such cooperation well. This acoustic cooperation is rather descriptive
in a very moody way, with pickings and notes in different rhythmical speeds, spinning around, with
some lovely tunes. The listing in my 'acidfolk' section does not completely do justice to the release.
Especially young people often tend to look for something with a hype factor, with "weird" or strange or
modern associations, while the mature composer also recognises better things that last longer, or that
reflect harmonic balances. For record companies, harmonic results are also harder to sell or categorise,
when the music does not follow any of the mainstream tendencies. Fernwood's music reflects harmonic
pulses and melodies, arranged by the inspirations of a duo playing together with interactions and melted
ideas of compositions, and a whole diversity of instruments. For Todd's playing on project Fernwood, all
his past in American folk, Celtic and classical native Indian music left its marks, although never in an obvious
way. I was convinced

Recommended!"

"Beautiful, picturesque acoustic instrumental music with loads of natural space and some gorgeous chord
changes. Just like you're seeing the sea for the first time in 3 years on your road trip."
KIAC Radio

Their music has been described in JazzMando.com as "A tantalizing taste of otherworldly aural delight."

For more information and music by Todd go to
www.virb.com/fernwood
www.myspace.com/montgomerytsingh
www.myspace.com/tjmontgomery