Rock The Nation - Martin Popoff

This long-awaited treatise on Montrose and Gamma is first and foremost the story of the five Montrose and four Gamma records, their making and baking, the hirings and firings, the superlative delivery live. Within the detailed analysis, one of course gets to celebrate with the author Montrose classics like `Rock the Nation', `Make it Last', `Rock Candy', `Bad Motor Scooter', `I Got the Fire', `Matriarch' and `Jump on It', along with the entirety of the Gamma years, including the top-shelf Gamma 2, an album Popoff considers the equal to the earth-shattering first Montrose album of 1973. But there's a darker turn to this extensive tribute as well, as we look at Ronnie's shocking suicide in 2012, before we correct the record, so to speak, looking at his legacy as articulated by those who played with him and knew him best. All told, it's a rough ride, with unsettling doses of negativity, but once our tale winds down, there are more than enough lessons on creativity to satisfy any lover of the arts, particularly those centred around the type of six-string mayhem cooked up by the hero of our story, Ronnie Montrose.