Ray Lamontagne - Trouble CD

Personnel include: Ray LaMontagne (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Jennifer Stills (vocals); Ethan Johns (guitar, piano, harmonium, bass instrument, drums, percussion); Sara Watkins (fiddle, background vocals).

Every once in a while a singer/songwriter comes down the pike in the grand emotive tradition of Neil Young and Van Morrison. In the early 2000s, the quietly intense folk of Iron & Wine and the rootsy-experimental stylings of Sufjan Stevens continued that lineage. Ray LaMontagne, whose impressive 2004 debut, TROUBLE, draws on alt-country, roots rock, and progressive folk in a unique, strikingly sincere way, seems a likely candidate for the keeper of the flame.

The title track, which opens the album, introduces LaMontagne's deeply textured singing. Simultaneously raw, lilting, and expansive, LaMontagne's voice bristles with emotion, and immediately commands the listener's attention. Though the instrumentation on the album rarely changes--strummed acoustic guitar, tasteful string arrangements, bass, drums, and electric guitar for accents--the moods shift subtly from song to song. "Burn" is harrowingly intimate and hushed, while "How Come" works a shuffling groove and "Hold You in My Arms" has a wistful, waltz-like feel. LaMontagne's lyrics, strong on narrative detail and vivid imagery, are the crowning touch on these moving songs of love and loss. TROUBLE is so well realized, in fact, that it sometimes belies the truth that this is the artist's first effort.

1. Trouble mp3
2. Shelter mp3
3. Hold You In My Arms mp3
4. Narrow Escape mp3
5. Burn mp3
6. Forever My Friend mp3
7. Hannah mp3
8. How Come mp3
9. Jolene mp3
10. All The Wild Horses mp3

Released Sept. 2004