Jess Montgomery

Jess is originally from the San Diego, California, area, but has lived on Kauai for 40 years. Once a cook by trade, he transitioned to music and is now a solo artist, singer and songwriter. He usually manages to play out somewhere once or twice a week. Among the instruments he plays are the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, slide guitar, steel guitar, and dobro.

His musical genres range from blues and rock to country, folk, and Hawaiian. "I've been writing songs for over 40 years and have been fortunate enough to have been a finalist in the Kauai Mokihana Festival Composer's Contest several times, and even won first place one year," says Jess. He plays bass guitar with "Vic & The Victimz" blues band, Hawaiian Steel Guitar with The Larry Rivera Polynesian Revue and with Troy Waialeale, and may even turn up doing a solo set or two at various island venues.