try to ignore all this blood on the floor / it’s just this heart on my sleeve that’s bleeding

Seeing Ray LaMontagne the first time was pretty dang incredible. It was early 2005 and I had just experienced the beginnings of my slow musical rebirth (snatched from the jaws of grownup musical apathy) through his groundshaking Trouble. I listened to it non-stop, feeling like something I had been missing out of music was slowly being diffused back into me. The rough-hewn beauty of the music, the incisive daggers in his lyrics, and most of all that unbelievable voice — it all felt so raw and beautiful. I went to see him at the Fillmore in S.F., and as I wrote:

“This skinny guy comes walking out on stage, looking as uncomfortable as all get out. Big beard. Quiet voice. Hiding behind his guitar. I almost thought he was going to bolt.

But then he opens his mouth and begins to play.

He has this vulnerable, raspy, velvety, pure voice, and he absolutely pours his soul into his music . . . He feels each word and resonates with each chord.

[One] non-album track that I remember vividly from the show is “Can I Stay.” He ended with this song. The venue went still, as if we were all transfixed in the moment, like you could almost feel the song hanging there above our heads. The spotlight shone on him, with the dust motes swirling in the heavy air. Absolutely beautiful song. I almost felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

On Monday night, I made the long drive up to Boulder for my fourth time seeing Ray. As jaded and cynical as I sometimes worry that my little critic’s heart is becoming, wouldn’t you know it – it happened again for me. The chills and the lump in the throat. Several times. The potency and passion still lives in Ray’s music, and I was so glad to meet up with it again.

Dressed in the same plaid shirt/jeans/workboots ensemble of his Maine roots, Ray is really hitting an amazing stride and finding his subtle confidence as a performer. Instead of feeling bad for even looking at him on-stage, as I sometimes did that first night, Ray now exhales a quiet sense of purpose, a level of comfort as he melds with his backing band, and occasionally a wickedly funny streak. (One gal in the crowd yelled out that it was her birthday, 26. Ray first claimed not to remember that long ago in his life, and then he thought for a moment and pensively but determinedly said, “Now I said I didn’t know what I was doing at 26, and that’s not true. I was getting stoned, that’s what I was doin’”).

Ray’s set skillfully wove his older material together with the bigger, brighter, shiner songs from his new album Gossip In The Grain. From the robust opening notes of “You Are The Best Thing,” to the rocking blues of his ode to Meg White (while the stage was saturated in a very White-Stripesy crimson light), it was exciting to see this different side of him bloom. The country flavor ran deep, with pedal steel replacing the elegant strings on songs like “Shelter.” Songs were laced through with high and lonesome whistles, and harmonicas unbounded like a runaway train.

I was nothing short of captivated, that he could still move those puzzle pieces around inside me. In a moment, Ray’s music conjures up a hard-working world of faded wood cabins on the plain, country dresses, and going home at night exhausted to someone who really loves you. There may be some cornbread involved, maybe a passel of children. All that flashed through my mind (and I thought about various Steinbeck books I’ve read) in the way he sang the line from Empty about, “kiss me with that country mouth so plain.” Overactive constructs, perhaps, but I loved it nonetheless in its simplicity, and in his absolute gut-wrenching conviction. He still doesn’t sing songs as much as they are yanked out from his insides.

Since you all already know that I’m a sap sometimes, I’ll totally cop to crying on his solo acoustic version of “Burn.” I didn’t expect that. It was very much like this video from a few days prior, and just bleeding raw and damn gorgeous:

A guy in the balcony said it best when he yelled out during one of the many quiet moments of guitar tuning between songs: “You sound good, Ray!”

And good it was. Very good.

SETLIST
You Are The Best Thing
Hold You In My Arms
Let It Be Me
I Still Care For You (with Leona Naess)
Empty
Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s A Shame)
Narrow Escape
Meg White
Burn (solo acoustic)
Winter Birds (solo acoustic)
Hey Me, Hey Mama
You Can Bring Me Flowers
Shelter
Trouble

–Encore–
3 More Days
Jolene
Gossip In The Grain (with Leona Naess)

[see all my pictures here]

Monday Music Roundup

No two ways about it — I’m pretty proud of those Halloween carving adventure results. First time I ever tried one of those fancy kit things with tracing wheels and all (mine is on the right), and I still popped the eyeball out of the left eye and had to tape it back on (shhhh, don’t tell). Since we always used dull carving knives and grabbed the gooey innards with our bare hands when we were kids, I felt a little out of my element when handed mini saws and ridged plastic scrapers. But what I lack in inborn creativity, I make up for in being able to trace.

I also solidified my costume this weekend at the Buffalo Exchange secondhand shop in Capitol Hill (Denver) with my friend Laurie. When she screamed and then died laughing after I tried said element on, I knew it was a keeper. My mom took out a needle and thread yesterday to make some alterations to the dress (because she is the best mom ever) and I am set. Boo!

Music for this week:

If You Want Blood (AC/DC cover)
Mark Kozelek
Gathering a wide variety of covers from his days with Red House Painters and also his solo career, Mark Kozelek is releasing The Finally LP on December 9th. Always staggering in the ways he reinvents originals, many of the tracks collected here were first featured on compilation albums that are no longer available. If you know me at all, you might know that I am a sucker for covers (and love his) so I will be picking this one up. AC/DC never sounded so pensive, so sensual, so sad. Listen to his previously unreleased cover of Husker Du’s “Celebrated Summer” here, and pre-order the record on his Caldo Verde imprint.

Fresh Feeling (live in 2005)
Eels
This song takes me back vividly to a perfectly encapsulated feeling of, well, freshness. Possibility. Old paint peeling and new horizons suddenly coming into sharp focus. I never tire of the the sweet melancholic strings combining with the crispness of the sharp clean beat. This live version of Fresh Feeling is from Manchester in 2005, and part of a free 4-song EP for download on the Eels website as part of a promotion for the new Blinking Lights deluxe version. Lately I’ve been quite impressed with Eels reissues and special collections – the packaging and liner notes alone are a journey. And since I’ve never caught E live, I can always use more free live Eels. You have until tomorrow to go and get it!

Born In The ’80s
The Boat People
While I watched Game 1 of the World Series, Bruce from Philly and I were electronically bantering, and he recommended I check out The Boat People from Brisbane and Melbourne. Their music is jaunty and bright and catchy – like Phantom Planet and the cousin Coconut Records. Even though the song talks about being born in the Eighties (and they likely were) don’t let it mislead you — the music isn’t bound to that decade. Their album Chandeliers is out now, with colors and lines on that wonderful cover art that echo the feel of the music inside.

Black White
The Raveonettes
Julio feels nauseous when he thinks about how effortlessly cool Danish duo The Raveonettes are, and listening to this new attitude-laden slowburner from their fresh Beauty Dies EP makes me jealous as well. All I know is that when they make a movie of my life I kinda want a scene where I get to walk down the street with this playing. I will probably wear sunglasses. In keeping with their vibe, this feels like such a stark, spacious song while vibrating with those warm surf-retro guitar tones. So sexy. Stream the full EP here, it came out last week on Vice Records.

Duet (with Ray LaMontagne)
Rachel Yamagata
So one more song featuring Ray’s warm voice before I head out the door to his show in a few minutes — and this is an incredible tune that has knocked me flat. The duet here is from Rachel Yamagata‘s new album Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart, and it is exceptional. One of my favorite Ray moments falls within the nakedness of early renditions of “Can I Stay,” and this feels like its musical twin, or its postscript. Yamagata’s voice has innate qualities that have always reminded me of a female Ray (or perhaps the sadness wound deeply into Lisa Hannigan’s songs). Now the twain shall meet in this flawless, delicate, intimate bedroom classic.

Tonight: Ray LaMontagne and Leona Naess

Touring in support of his new third album Gossip In The Grain, the skinny bearded man with the immensely warm & rough voice comes through Boulder tonight. I fell hard for Ray LaMontagne in early 2005 and his music has accompanied me through all sorts of highs and lows since then. Every now and again I still get a hard lump in my throat that’s hard to swallow past when I listen to his music; even after knowing most of it by heart, it still suckerpunches. This is one of my favorite qualities.

A few of my favorites at the moment:
Hold You In My Arms (live on KFOG)
Empty (live at Bonnaroo 2005)
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)
To Love Somebody (Bee Gees cover)
All The Wild Horses (solo acoustic, 9/30/08)
Heaven Is A Honky Tonk (live on ACL)
(“all my heroes have gone to heaven…” – written after the death of Townes Van Zandt)

The effortlessly wonderful songbird Leona Naess lends her talents on Ray’s newest album, and also opens this tour. I am quite excited to see her live after also being a fan for several years and never managing to catch her on tour. I was out at the record store on Friday night and I saw that her long-awaited album Thirteens is finally, finally out with little fanfare. It’s excellent.

Ghosts In The Attic – Leona Naess

[photo credit: Dan Winters]

New Ray LaMontagne! “Let It Be Me” (studio)

I’m a big sucker for the heavy exhalation.

When I first heard that weighty sigh of breath that hangs in the room to start this first new Ray LaMontagne song (from his upcoming Gossip In The Grain), I smiled wide to myself.

Once it cues up and that voice starts singing, I was texting gushing and effusive words to my friend Bodie who found it for the listenin’– something to the effect of “!!!! o dear heavens how i love ray!” That evocative voice is enough to make grown men weep — and for my money, no one nails that husky, gorgeous, smoky, bluesy sound exactly like Ray.

Let It Be Me – Ray LaMontagne
(alternate SaveFile link)

Gossip In The Grain is out September 30th, and Ray just announced tour dates yesterday with the lovely Leona Naess, including a stop at Boulder’s Macky Auditorium on October 27th and the gorgeous art-deco Paramount Theater in Oakland, CA a few days later. Seeing Ray live in San Francisco in 2005 still ranks as one of my top spellbinding concerts ever.

RAY LAMONTAGNE & LEONA NAESS TOUR DATES
Sept 30 – Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
Oct 1 – Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL
Oct 3 – Union Theatre, Madison, WI
Oct 4 – State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
Oct 6 – Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak, MI
Oct 7 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto, ON
Oct 9 – Opera House, Boston, MA
Oct 10 – Opera House, Boston, MA
Oct 11 – Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY
Oct 13 – Keswick Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
Oct 14 – The Strathmore Music Center, Washington, DC
Oct 16 – Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, NC
Oct 17 – Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN
Oct 18 – The Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA
Oct 19 – Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
Oct 21 – Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, MO
Oct 23 – Verizon Wireless Theatre, Houston, TX
Oct 24 – Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX
Oct 25 – Paramount Theatre, Austin, TX
Oct 27 – Macky Auditorium, Boulder, CO
Oct 28 – Murray Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 30 – Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 1 – Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, CA
Nov 3 – Paramount Theatre, Oakland, CA
Nov 5 – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR
Nov 6 – McDonald Theatre, Eugene, OR
Nov 8 – Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, BC
Nov 9 – Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Seattle, WA

Many tickets on presale now

New song from Ray LaMontagne: “Let It Be Me” (plus album news and a song about Meg White!)

I just received unexpected confirmation today that Ray LaMontagne is set to release his third full-length studio album on September 9th. Gossip In The Grain will be his follow-up to 2006′s Till The Sun Turns Black, and like his previous albums will again be produced again by Ethan Johns.

The raw and soulful starkness of Trouble struck me the very first time I heard it, and after I saw Ray live in San Francisco in April of 2005, I was breathlessly converted. This new release is said to be more of a full-band effort than previous albums, with touring band bassist Jennifer Condos and guitarist Eric Heywood playing, and Ethan Johns largely handling drum duties. Also (!!!) Fuel/Friends favorite Leona Naess will join him on two tracks, “A Falling Through” and “I Still Care For You.” These two artists toured together in 2007.

Ray says of the album: “It was time to open up a little bit more, not be quite so reserved in my choice of songs that I wanted to record. I’m really very critical of myself and it’s sort of a process of opening up. I felt like I was in the right space to show that side of myself.” I sincerely look forward to hearing that, and also finding out how he opens up about Meg White (track #6).

GOSSIP IN THE GRAIN TRACKLISTING
Let It Be Me (live 5/28/08) [vid]
Hey Me, Hey Mama (live 7/11/05) (previously called “Amy”)
Sarah (live 5/7/05)

I Still Care For You
Winter Birds
Meg White
Achin’ All The Time
Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s A Shame)
A Falling Through
Gossip In The Grain

Two “new” ones from Ray LaMontagne, and Jake Troth EP news

Hey kids, I am working on the Monday Music Roundup, but til then, here’s some good stuff:

I reupped that new Ray LaMontagne song from the Beacon in December. Thanks to reader Eric, who was there, here is a better version than what I posted before.

You Are The Best Thing That’s Ever Happened To Me – Ray LaMontagne

And while I’m at it, here’s a fresh mp3 I ripped from his Austin City Limits performance of “Heaven Is A Honky Tonk,” which he wrote about his personal heroes like Johnny Cash and Townes Van Zandt:

Heaven Is A Honky Tonk – Ray LaMontagne

This version above is a more sedate, refined rendition appropriate for the classiness of the ACL setting. I prefer the raucous, soul-reviving live version from January 2005, but the audio quality on that is not as clear and warm, so this makes for some good listening.

Also, an update on Jake Troth, the musician I raved about recently: his EP The Ups and Downs of Being at the Bottom is just now completed — written, recorded, screen printed, and copied by Jake himself. They’re available for a mere $10 by emailing Jake or contacting him through MySpace. Props to Bruce for also picking up on this and giving Jake’s music some well-deserved love.

Monday Music Roundup

I was enjoying Japanese food a few nights ago with some good people, and yummy as it was, midway through my udon and sake I had a sudden void open up within my soul for some Wagamama.
Wagamama.
See — it makes you happy just to say it. It hit me like a bolt from the blue and I’ve been missing it ever since.

Wagamama is the name of a series of Japanese restaurants started in London, tasty – tasty – tasty. I first became acquainted with the Covent Garden one and have eaten at Wagamama each time I’ve been in London since — and I always have a good time. I read that they are opening their first US location in Boston on April 23. Go! Wasting time on the Wagamama website is also a poor substitute for the vittles, but fun — like a carnival. They have a Passion-O-Meter (I am, apparently, Hot Stuff) and Mystic Noodles fortune-telling (Saturn and Mars are making a mess of my noodle aura).

Mostly it just makes me hungry.

The Words You Used To Say
Dean & Britta
Former frontman of Luna combines with the voice of the most truly, truly, truly outrageous punk rocker of Saturday mornings in the ’80s, Jem (real name is Britta Phillips but if I were her I think I’d just change my name to Jem). This is from Dean & Britta‘s delightfully subtle new album Back Numbers, out now on Zoe/Rounder. These two also scored The Squid and The Whale, aka the most stunningly depressing movie I’ve seen in recent years – but hey, it sounded good.

Half-A-Life
Luce
This is an atmospheric new song today from San Francisco band Luce, off the soundtrack of a spooky hospital movie Sublime, featuring that guy from Ed. The song itself is not spooky at all, but rather a wistful, melodic latin-tinged affair. Luce is currently working on a new album (follow-up to the wonderful 2005 album Never Ending) and have announced a series of shows for the lucky California folks, including a special summer festival up with the North Bay hippies co-starring bluesy rocker Jackie Greene.

You Are The Best Thing (new)
Ray LaMontagne
This is such a naked, vulnerable song — and I’ve always much preferred the raw earnest Ray to the slickly produced Ray. I am pretty sure this is a brand new tune, several of you have written to me about LaMontagne performing it lately; this version’s from 12/16/06 at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. The mp3 is not stellar, admittedly, but the song certainly is. [photo credit]

Ballad of Humankindness
The Dears
A good friend breathlessly told me that I had to check out this song and my, how she knows me. I did indeed enjoy the song from the moment those opening beats started. I am a sucker for beats like this, the blending of the acoustic with the thumping danceable rhythm that just gets better as the song progresses. The tune, from Montreal’s The Dears‘ 2006 album Gang Of Losers (Arts & Crafts), builds into something fantastic —- even if the semi-preachy tones about all of us learning forgiveness and not judging the homeless are a bit heavy-handed.

Salala (featuring Peter Gabriel)
Angélique Kidjo
I have written before about the wonderful West African songstress Angélique Kidjo, and I always get into the Africa world-beat fusion of her music. She has a new album out May 1 called Djin Djin and it features a whole host of A-listers like Amadou & Miriam, Ziggy Marley, Joss Stone, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys and this guy. Every time I hear Peter Gabriel’s gruff, velvety voice I say to myself, “I forgot how much I love Peter Gabriel.” The whole album is very good global listening.

Ray LaMontagne & Damien Rice duet on French TV

Thanks to everyone who sent me this link:

This was live on the Taratata French 4 live music TV show, and I agree that The Bee Gees never sounded so good.

To Love Somebody – Ray LaMontagne & Damien Rice
(re-upped, better quality. Thanks reader Jason!)

You asked: Ray LaMontagne, live & unreleased

The single most requested re-up that I get these days is for some of the older live and unreleased Ray LaMontagne songs. I am happy to finally re-post some fantastic live unreleased stuff from him, in honor of me seeing Ray in Denver next Monday. These are mostly all courtesy of a fantastic girl named Jaimie who is relentless in collecting these, and I am appreciative for the goodness they have bestowed upon my ears.

RAY LAMONTAGNE LIVE UNRELEASED (zip at end)

PREVIOUSLY POSTED:
Heaven is a Honky Tonk (1/29/05)
Amy (7/11/2005)
Lesson Learned (7/11/2005)
You Got What I Want (So Why Don’t You Give It To Me) (7/11/2005)
Katie Belle (Gettin’ High) (7/11/2005)
Until The Sun Turns Black (KEXP)
Still Can’t Feel The Gin (9/18/04, Austin TX)
You Should Belong To Me (Folk Fest in Lyons, CO)
I Can Get High (Folk Fest in Lyons, CO)
Life Is Long (Folk Fest in Lyons, CO)
Can I Stay? (Folk Fest in Lyons, CO)
Half Alive (2/15/2005)
Simple Consolation (2/15/2005)
Three More Days (2/15/2005)
Sarah (5/4/05)

NEW ADDITIONS:
Allie You Ought To Be A Married Woman Now (1/29/05, Troubadour, Hollywood CA)
Gather Your Children (live at Merrill)
She’s Your Girl (Folk Fest in Lyons, CO)
Untitled (Take Me By Surprise) (7/18/05, Wiltern Theatre, LA)
Sad And Lonesome Boy (12/7/05, Chicago IL)
Untitled (I Won’t Be Around?) (Folk Fest in Lyons, CO)
Into The Sun (April 2003)
Milkweed and Honey (Austin City Limits, 9/18/04)
Tired Of Waiting For You (yes, a Kinks cover – 4/26/05, Paradiso)
Hello Hello (Bush Hall)

And a cover Ray has been pulling out of his hat lately in concert, this one 11/9/06 in Los Angeles: (a good video here from London)

To Love Somebody (Bee Gees cover, NOT Michael Bolton)

DOWNLOAD ALL THE UPDATED RAY GOODNESS AS A ZIP FILE

Ray LaMontagne tour & album news

Yippee-ki-yay. The second leg of the Ray LaMontagne tour is FINALLY up on his website. I’ve only been checking, like, every day:

09/14 – Nokia Theatre, Grand Prairie, TX
09/15 – Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX
09/16 – Verizon Wireless Theater, Houston, TX
09/17 – House of Blues, New Orleans, LA
09/19 – Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa, OK
09/20 – The Blue Note, Columbia, MO (free show!)
09/22 – City Market, Kansas City, MO
09/23 – City Lights Pavillion, Denver, CO
09/27 – SDSU Open Air Theatre, San Diego, CA
09/28 – The Wiltern LG, Los Angeles, CA
09/29 – The Wiltern LG, Los Angeles, CA
09/30 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA (what a great venue)
10/04 – Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
10/05 – Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA

For the rest of the tour dates in progress, check his website here. If you can catch him live, by all means do. As I enthusiastically said to anyone who would listen to me last April after I saw him in San Fran, it was possibly one of the best, most stirring & heartfelt and stunningly beautiful shows I have ever seen. He looks as uncomfortable on stage as all get out, but man, what music emerges. So (large hint to family) – tickets to the Denver show, that’s all I want as a birthday present.

Also, thanks to an absolutely fantastic little birdie, I have a rough copy of the new Ray LaMontagne album, called Till The Sun Turns Black, due out August 29. While there’s some really superb material on here, overall it is . . . a lot gentler and less folk-rock than I thought it would be. There are times when I wondered if I was listening to the Princess Bride soundtrack (although, that was by Mark Knopfler, so not entirely a bad thing).

Even though LaMontagne is working with Ethan Johns again as a producer this time, the overall feel is swirling, more fairy-tale-like, and very different to me than Trouble. The prominent immediacy of the percussion from Johns and the out-in-front strumming of Ray’s acoustic guitar is largely muted; instead, many songs experiment more with strings, trumpets, even a slightly uncomfortable flute solo. I also feel like Ray’s voice is mixed lower and often not as distinctive and soaringly-rough and cracking as it was on the debut. It is still as beautiful as Ray always is, but I miss the barely-caged passion and furious strumming of Trouble.

He does get pretty downright bluesy and funky with a couple of the songs, and there are some lovely, lovely strings that downright devastate me. Here is the tracklisting, and since I can’t share any of the album tracks, there are links to some live versions from a previous post:

01. Be Here Now (an interesting choice for opening track, clocking in at over 6 minutes, swirling, building, almost ethereal)

02. Empty (live version from Bonnaroo, album version is more restrained)

03. Barfly (intro melody sounds like a slowed down “Walk On The Wild Side”)

04. Three More Days (very bluesy, Memphis horns on the album. Live version here)

05. Can I Stay? (a little too slickly smooth for me on the album, but I love this song, absolutely gorgeous. A live version is here)

06. You Can Bring Me Flowers (another bluesy riff song with Ray’s smoky rough vocals cutting through the haze. Great harmonica licks, but an ill-advised flute solo straight out of Anchorman at the end)

07. Gone Away From Me (lyrics of your standard wrenching love lost, very simple verses, folksy structure. Album version has addition of brass backing. Used to be called Life Is Long, live version here)

08. Lesson Learned (Opening instumental similar to Empty, lyrics that recall “Burn” from Trouble, one of the few tracks on the new album where he lets his vocals GO, he wails at the beginning. Live version here)

09. Instrumental (this is the one I can’t get – sounds like it belongs on the Princess Bride film score. Maybe I am missing something.)

10. Till The Sun Turns Black (Pretty faithful to the live version, but with the addition of delicate strings. Live version here)

11. Coda (this, for me, is really a standout track on the album. A lovely cadence, layered “la la la” vocals, the feeling of a closing refrain)

I was hoping for the inclusion of a few other GREAT older songs he’s been playing live, such as “Still Can’t Feel The Gin,” “You Should Belong to Me,” “I Can Get High (All By Myself)“ and the frickin’ fantastic “Heaven Is A Honky Tonk,” but not this time around. Maybe the next one . . . *sigh*

BONUS: Ray LaMontagne interview from Atlanta’s 92.9 here, (with a live performance of three songs, ones from Trouble).