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.
