Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ray LaMontagne Rocks My World!

Whether it's a musician, designer, writer, or artist, I tend to either be totally obsessed or disinterested. If I like a particular artist, I will start manically googling him or her, trying to find interviews, bios on Wikipedia, experience the person's entire canon of work thus far, figure out when the next show is, and get totally immersed in it. Therefore, I'm often a little skeptical or hesitant to listen/see/read/try new things when they are recommended to me, because I invest so much energy into investigating the artists I like, I don't really want to waste time listening/seeing/reading things that don't excite me. I also don't like going to see a concert or a movie unless I think it will be awesome. As a result, I often don't really give things a chance until a while after they come on the scene, and I've heard about 10 people tell me I should check it out. I figure, why not let other people vet things for me, and if something is really awesome, I'll hear about it eventually.

Anyway, I recently became totally obsessed with Ray LaMontagne, who's been around for a while. I'd heard the name tossed around but I didn't really get into it until I started listening to Damien Rice several months ago (also been around for several years before I gave it a chance). I heard a cover Damien and Ray did together of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody," and I was haunted by Ray's soulful, raspy voice. You'd think it would be then that I'd check him out, but fastforward a couple of months and he kept coming up on my Pandora so I finally checked him out. One song I especially like is "Let It Be Me," from his most recent album, Gossip in the Grain. I thought I loved Damien Rice, but I LOVE Ray.

Below is a YouTube video of a live recording of Let It Be Me.



Dude totally looks like a hillbilly with his huge beard, but he's really got soul. Makes me want to go up to Maine or Vermont or wherever he lives and hunt him down. Or maybe just go to his show in Long Island this summer...

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