Rock music never really had to reinvent itself to remain exciting. Occasionally all you need is a great riff, a catchy chorus, a couple of guitars turned up loud enough, and an artist who still believes that playing a great song is reason enough to celebrate. That spirit is in Living The Dream, correct? Now, the latest nine-track album from BC-based rock musician Steve Montgomery is titled “Living The Dream Right Now.” This album represents more than two decades of independent songwriting and recording. Distributed by the SkipRock Music brand, it brings the wisdom of an artist who has spent years perfecting his take on classic rock, power pop, and simple guitar music. Within the first few seconds of “Crazy Town,” Montgomery wastes no time making his intentions known: This is not a record that’s interested in apologizing for loving rock and roll. Bright, energetic, melodic, and fun. No apologies. But under the good-time veneer is a more profound perspective. Living The Dream Right Now feels less like a boast but a realization that after years of writing, recording, releasing, and continuing to show up, there’s something beautiful about just being able to make music on your own terms. The music has arrived at a place where it need not justify its cultural relevance: Montgomery. This album knows exactly what it has to do to make you feel alive.
“Crazy Town” kicks off the journey, and an album opener is supposed to behave a certain way: it gets the blood pumping. The guitar’s purpose is immediate, laying down the classic rock foundation of the album before Montgomery’s vocals slide into the pocket. There’s a lovely looseness here, as if the door to the studio has been flung open onto a rehearsal room where everyone knows exactly what they’re doing, but no one’s afraid to have a little fun. That’s part of the charm of Montgomery. His music is not an exercise in the pursuit of complexity for its own sake. Instead, he works with the time-tested architecture of rock songwriting: riffs that establish personality, verses that carry the story, bridges that create movement, and choruses that stay with you after the song ends. “Crazy Town” sets up language before the title track expands on it. “Living The Dream Right Now” has an unmistakably optimistic charge, its very premise a rejection of the endless tendency to postpone happiness. There’s something genuinely appealing about an album that acknowledges contentment as a worthy subject of singing about. Montgomery sounds less like someone dreaming up some future version of success and more like someone who knows the value of enjoying the present, guitars and all.
That optimism is one of the album’s best qualities, never feeling entirely divorced from experience. Montgomery has been making records since Better Late Than Never in 2000, with releases including Alone In A Room, Hwy 3A, Shut Up And Rock, and Time To Rock! And that history matters when you listen to this album. The album is not the work of someone who has just discovered guitar music. This is the work of someone who has lived with it for years and knows what he wants from it. “Cinnamon” brings a lighter, more playful aspect to the sequence, while “Sweet Sweet Summertime” is a natural match to the album’s sunny mood. The songs lend the record a seasonal warmth, making you think of open windows, long drives down familiar roads, and evenings stretching comfortably into night. There’s a certain nostalgia to the songwriting, but it doesn’t feel stuck in the past. Montgomery taps into the traditions of classic rock and power pop but allows the songs to live in the present. His love of melody-based songwriting is especially apparent, with hooks that feel more like memories than sounds heard from afar. It’s not a cold or overly cerebral experience. This is music with which you can live.
There’s the same warmth in “A Little Love Gonna Shine,” which gives the record an almost childlike faith in affection and human connection. Montgomery’s songwriting shines when he keeps these feelings simple. There is no need for elaborate metaphor when a melody can better communicate sincerity. That bluntness has always been part of rock’s appeal when it’s guitar-driven, and Montgomery revels in it unapologetically. Then there’s “Looking For A Brighter Day,” whose title is a neat summation of another thread running through the album: persistence. The more upbeat nature of Living The Dream Right Now does not suggest that life hands out perfection. Instead, the record indicates that optimism can be a choice, particularly after having experienced enough years to realize that nothing is ever permanent. The warmth of the album feels deserved and therefore more convincing. Montgomery doesn’t sound like he’s trying to convince listeners life is always wonderful. He sounds like he knows it can be hard, but he has decided to keep finding ways to enjoy it anyway. That distinction lends the record more emotional weight than its sunny surface might at first suggest. Even when the songs are just celebrating love, summer, movement, or rock and roll itself, there’s a quiet appreciation underneath.
“Now I Follow” and “I’ll Run Away With You” push the album even further into its melodic side, and it’s here that Montgomery’s power-pop instincts are most evident. Both titles have a sense of movement, but the songs are more than just a chase for speed. Rather, they look at the freedom of emotion that comes from choosing a direction and allowing yourself to follow it through. Montgomery’s music always shines best when the guitars and melodies are allowed to convey that feeling without the trappings of over-studio decoration. His production philosophy leans toward the character of a real band rather than a sterile digital construction, and that significantly shapes the album’s personality. The instrumentation has an organic quality that keeps the songs grounded. Even when the arrangements get more elaborate, they still feel like the people making music, not the software stringing sounds together. The difference may be subtle, but it is important. In an age where so much popular music can be polished until every rough edge disappears, Living The Dream Right Now benefits from keeping some of the human texture that makes rock music so satisfying in the first place. The guitars sound like guitars, not like something else. The melodies sound written, not created. Most importantly, the songs sound like the work of an artist who has been honing his craft through repetition, curiosity, and sheer persistence.
There’s also a subtle current of classic pop sensibility running through the album. Montgomery’s melodic instincts call to mind the kind of songwriting associated with the Beatles and the harmony-conscious brightness of the Beach Boys, while the more fleshed-out arrangements retain the muscle of classic rock and the immediacy of power pop. There is an 80s flavor here as well, but it is more atmosphere than costume. Montgomery is not trying to replicate a specific decade with archeological precision. Instead, he pilfers from the virtues that made rock and pop of that era so durable: strong melodies, accessible choruses, confident guitar playing, and a certain willingness to be unabashedly entertaining. That combo is the secret sauce that makes songs like “Sweet Sweet Summertime” and “A Little Love Gonna Shine” so easy to replay. They are comfortable but not to be discarded. One of the album’s most underrated achievements is how it feels both cheerful and genuine. It’s easy to make cheerful music but easy to feel shallow. Making cheerful music that feels genuine is much harder. Montgomery is able to achieve this because the positivity appears to come from his personality and history rather than from an imposed commercial formula. He wants the album to be light. It is light.
By the time you get to “I Gotta Rock,” the album has been building toward an ending that could not be more appropriate. The exclamation mark in the title is entirely justified, for the song is not a subtle goodbye. It’s a last statement of intent, a celebration of guitars, volume, melody, and the simple joy of noise. Its conviction is almost charmingly old-fashioned. In a music culture that can sometimes seem obsessed with trends, branding, genre reinvention, and the pursuit of whatever is fashionable this month, Montgomery’s position is refreshingly uncomplicated: rock music still works. You plug in, write something memorable, play it with conviction, and let the audience decide where it fits. That philosophy is “I Gotta Rock,” but it’s a smile instead of a lecture. As a closer, it provides the entire album with a satisfying sense of resolution, because it gets back to the fundamental urge that seems to have propelled Montgomery’s career from the start. After nine songs about love, hope, the light of summer, persistence, getting away, and the thrill of just being alive, the ultimate answer is still music.
In the end, Living The Dream Right Now works because Steve Montgomery knows precisely the kind of record he wants to make—and isn’t interested in pretending to be anything else. It’s a celebration of guitar-driven songwriting, classic-rock energy, power-pop melody, and the stubbornly optimistic notion that music can still make an ordinary day feel better. The record’s greatest strength is its consistency: from “Crazy Town” through the title track, “Cinnamon,” “Sweet Sweet Summertime,” “A Little Love Gonna Shine,” “Looking For A Brighter Day,” “Now I Follow,” “I’ll Run Away With You,” and finally “I Gotta Rock,” the mood stays open, warm, melodic, and alive. There’s no wasted effort to smother the songs with layers of conceptual ambition. Montgomery believes in the riff, believes in the chorus, believes in the band chemistry, and believes in the listener to just enjoy the ride. That confidence seems well earned after 26 years of assembling an independent catalog. Living The Dream Right Now is, after all, exactly what the title suggests: a record about living in the moment, not about waiting for some imaginary perfect future. It sounds like the sunshine through an open car window. It sounds like a well-worn guitar being plugged into an amp. It sounds like someone who has spent enough time chasing tomorrow to finally turn around and appreciate today. In Montgomery’s world the dream is not in the future. The dream is now, and luckily enough, he’s brought a soundtrack.
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