Colorado guitarist Ronnie Montrose already had a small but distinguished career as a session musician (for Van Morrison and Herbie Hancock, among others) and as a member of the Edgar Winter Group with the hit single "Free Ride" behind him when he formed the hard rock quartet named after him in 1974.
While the genre increasingly took off, Montrose stayed nicely on the tracks of early Led Zeppelin with powerful, straightforward songs and had a shouter of caliber to offer in Sammy Hagar (who would later appear with Van Halen). For this they got gold for their self-titled debut album, produced by Ted Templeman, and the encyclopedic assessment that they had made a "decisive" contribution to the development of North American hard rock.
After Hagar's departure, Bob James took his place at the mike for "Warner Bros. Presents Montrose!" and with keyboardist Jim Alcivar, Montrose had become a quintet. With "Jump On It", which was supervised by the renowned producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon etc.), the band once again succeeded in a clean heavy attack, before Ronnie Montrose decided to go solo for the time being with "Open Fire".
5CD set includes the albums:
Montrose
Paper Money
Warner Bros. Presents Montrose!
Jump On It
Open Fire
