It’s not often that I sit down to write about music and feel like I just can’t do it justice. This is one of those times. When I took Ray Lamontagne‘s CD home from work last night, it was because I thought I had heard or read about him somewhere. If for no other reason, I saw it was produced by Ethan Johns and that was good enough for me. When I got around to playing the album, it was pretty late and I was exhausted. The minute I heard Ray’s voice my jaw dropped slightly and I was transfixed. By the end of the first song, I felt like sobbing.
As the rest of the album played, I was shocked by the soulful purity of his music. And when I say soulful, I’m talking Otis Redding soulful. No, I’m not kidding. It’s been years since I’ve felt so moved by an album, or even a song. I listened to the album two more times in its entirety. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else and was on the verge of tears nearly the entire time.
It’s the kind of music that’s untouchable, precious – like it’s not even possible for something to sound so beautiful. The stark production and instrumentation only work to compliment Ray’s mesmerizing voice. There’s just enough of this and not too much of that. You’ll be reading about Ray very soon and I’d lay down a pile of money that a lot of people are going to be saying the same thing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go listen to the album again.
holy shit. yr not kidding. wow. he needs to come back this a’way soon.
…and I’ve already played through those three songs a good number of times. brilliant. you know it’s great when your playlist jumps to the next thing (someting you like because it’s on yr playlist) and you find yourself saying “NO! nooooo!! go back!!” and then the panic sets in, searching the playlist for something that can follow it. Otis it is. not *exactly* what I was looking for, but it’ll do. for sure.
for real. i NEED that ray lamontagne cd. where in the hell did you find it? I have searched the net. no luck thus far.
I don’t think you’ll be able to find it on the net. I don’t even know if he’s selling it at his shows or anything. I happened to get a copy through work and no, you can’t have it 🙂