Montrose was an American hard rock band formed in 1973 and named after guitarist and founder Ronnie Montrose. The band's original lineup featured lead vocalist and frontman Sammy Hagar, who later found greater success as a solo artist and as a member of Van Halen. Rounding out the original foursome were bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi. The band experienced moderate success before disbanding in early 1977.
Ronald Douglas Montrose was an American guitarist who founded and led the rock bands Montrose and Gamma. He also performed and did session work with a variety of musicians, including Van Morrison, Herbie Hancock, Beaver & Krause, Boz Scaggs, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, The Beau Brummels, Dan Hartman, Tony Williams, The Neville Brothers, Marc Bonilla and Sammy Hagar.
Denny Carmassi is an American drummer most notable for playing with many rock bands.
Davey Pattison is a Scottish-American singer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pattison started his career in 1969, and it took off after arrival in the United States in 1979, on invitation from Bill Graham, to front the rock band Gamma, formed by Ronnie Montrose.
Gamma was an American rock band formed by guitarist and session musician Ronnie Montrose and vocalist Davey Pattison in San Francisco, California, in 1979. They have released four studio albums: Gamma 1 (1979), Gamma 2 (1980), Gamma 3 (1982) and Gamma 4 (2000). Their biggest hit was 1982's "Right the First Time", which was a minor chart entry in the US, but a top 40 hit in Canada. Some of their other best-known songs include "Fight to the Finish" from their first album, and "Meanstreak" and "Voyager" from their second album.
Montrose is the debut studio album by American hard rock band Montrose, released in October 1973 by Warner Bros. It was produced by Ted Templeman. Montrose marks the career debut of singer-guitarist Sammy Hagar, who would later achieve significant success as a solo artist and as a member of Van Halen.
Paper Money is the second studio album by the American hard rock band Montrose, released on October 11, 1974, by Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Ted Templeman and is the band's final recording with original vocalist Sammy Hagar. It marks the arrival of new bass player Alan Fitzgerald, replacing original bassist Bill Church.
Gamma 1, released in 1979, is Gamma's debut album. It reached No. 131 on the Billboard Album charts, totalling seventeen weeks on the survey. "I'm Alive" reached No. 60 on the Billboard singles charts. "I'm Alive" is a cover of The Hollies song from 1965.
Gamma 3 is the third studio album released by the rock band Gamma. It was released in 1982.
Gamma 4 is Gamma's fourth and final album and was originally released on Ronnie Montrose's own label, RoMoCo, in 2000. In 2005, it was re-released by Wounded Bird Records. It was the last full album in Montrose's lifetime to feature contributions from him.
Mean is the fifth and final album by American hard rock band Montrose, released in 1987. It has much more of a glam metal sound than previous Montrose albums. It was the lowest-charting release on Montrose's career, reaching No. 165 on the Billboard 200 in June 1987.
Warner Bros. Presents Montrose! is the third studio album by American hard rock band Montrose, released on Warner Bros. Records on 26 September 1975.
Jump on It is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Montrose.
Blood Sports is a 1984 album released by the British heavy metal band Avenger. It was reissued in 2002 by Frontline Records.
Open Fire is the debut studio album by American guitarist Ronnie Montrose.
Glenn Letsch is an American bass guitarist. He was in a Los Angeles band with Mitchell Froom called "Bullet Park". After Ronnie Montrose produced their demo, he asked Letsch to join his band Gamma, where Letsch became friends with singer Davey Pattison. When Gamma disbanded in 1982, Pattison became Robin Trower's principal vocalist and Letsch continued with several of Ronnie Montrose projects and session work including playing bass on Sims computer games. He joined Trower's touring band in 2008 reuniting with Pattison.
The Diva Station is a mix of instrumental rock music with three songs with vocals. Former Gamma vocalist Davey Pattison reunites for two songs with Ronnie Montrose.
The Best of Gamma is a compilation of music from the first three Gamma albums.
The Very Best of Montrose is the only compilation album by American hard rock band Montrose. It was released in 2000 by Rhino Records. The album contains songs from the group's five albums, the first four in consecutive years in the mid-seventies and another from 1987.
10x10 is a posthumous solo album by Ronnie Montrose. Ronnie had been touring with bassist Ricky Phillips and Eric Singer (Kiss) in the early 2000s. Over three days in 2003 at Doug Messenger's studio in North Hollywood, the sessions produced 10 strong tracks of rhythm guitar, bass and drums with the intention to get a singer to for the vocals. Eventually Ronnie decided on the 10x10 concept, 10 tracks and 10 different singers. Early on, he was able to secure contributions from close friends and collaborators like Sammy Hagar, Edgar Winter and Davey Pattison. In the intervening years Ronnie battled prostate cancer and, at one point, hadn't touched a guitar for 2 years. Conflicts in scheduling led to the record remaining unfinished for years up until Montrose's passing in 2012. Along with completion of the vocals, the songs also needed lead guitar as well. Rickey Phillips, with the blessing of Ronnie's wife Leighsa and assistance of Eric Singer, picked up the reigns and completed the album. "After he passed, I had to carry on with what Ronnie wanted, because he was such a purist. The songs were cut to 2-inch tape and then transferred to digital, but I really needed it to be a cohesive record. I've done enough records to know how easily the levels of 10 different singers can sound disjointed if you don't stay on top of the production." As per Singer, "I have to give a lot of credit to Ricky Phillips. Ricky really wanted to see this thing through. It was more for Ronnie than just for himself, or for ourselves. We really believed what we had originally captured had a certain vibe and a certain magic to the people in that room when it was created. We felt like, 'Hey, this thing needs to get done. We need to see this thing through, for every good reason.'"
