Winter Sounds

Winter is upon us, and so far, it's been an interesting one here in Vermont. No snow, then lots of snow, then freezing temperatures. I'm thrilled that we have the white stuff here, and the fall to spring period of the year is easily trumps summer for me.

Winter Birds - Ray LaMontagne

Winter - Joshua Radin

Faded from the Winter - Iron & Wine

Men of Snow - Ingrid Michaelson

Snowfall Music - Carbon Leaf

Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon & Garfunkle

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I <3 M

It's been a good couple months.

Love You More - Alexi Murdoch

I'm In Love With A Girl - Big Star

Re: Stacks - Bon Iver

Comfort - Carbon Leaf

Dream Girl - Dave Matthew's Band

Ordinary Man - Gregory Douglass & Grace Potter

Heartbeats (The Knife) - José González

A Good Day (Morning Song) - Priscilla Ahn

You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne

Everybody Knows - Ryan Adams

Dreaming - Sara Wheeler

Love Will Come Through - Travis

Destiny - Zero 7

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V-Day

I'm not totally moping around, being all emo-ish on valentine's day. I barely even noticed it. Still, I wish that I had a reason to really celebrate it, and I wish things had gone better.

And back to real life.

Thirty One Today - Aimee Mann
To Love Somebody - Bee Gees
Kiss The Rain - Billy Myers
Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan
Fall Apart Again - Brandi Carlile
Love's Made A Fool Of You - Buddy Holly
Love Loss Hope Repeat - Carbon Leaf
Gray Room - Damien Rice
Stay or Leave - Dave Matthews
Ashes and Wine - A Fine Frenzy
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
The Last Time I Saw Her - Gordon Lightfoot
Apologies - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
We Can Work It Out (The Beatles) - Heather Nova
Blues Run the Game - Jackson C. Frank
Fire & Rain - James Taylor
Somos lo que fue - Jesse & Joy
Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) - Phil Collins
I Still Care For You - Ray LaMontagne
Come Around - Rhett Miller
Much Farther To Go - Rosie Thomas

I still think of you.

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The Best Albums of the Year

This year has been an incredible one for music. I don’t know if it was the full year of blogging about it, but I have learned and heard so much during the past year, making it incredibly difficult at times to really narrow down what was the best of the good. Looking back over the year, there were some clear choices, some not so clear, and a couple that surprised me. Already, 2009 is shaping up to look like a good year already.


Runners up: Always the Bridesmaid: Decemberists, Human: Civil Twilight, A Hundred Million Suns: Snow Patrol, Let It Go: Jon Regen, View from the Root: Adam Ezra Group, A Good Day: Priscilla Ahn.

10 - The Fairline Parkway, Memory of Open Spaces / The Weepies, Hideaway

Memory of Open Spaces is a light affair, and carries a quiet grace from its opening song, Westward Bound, that is sustained throughout the album with a soft and balanced sound. I like it because it's soft, reflective and interesting throughout with a great sound and good lyrics.

Tied with this album is Hideaway by the Weepies. Like the Fairline Parkway, this album is soft, rythmic and interesting. The sound is evenly balanced between the two vocalists with a sweet and relaxing sound to it.

9 - Bombadil, A Buzz, A Buzz

From the first bars of Bombadil's debut album A Buzz A Buzz, you'll know that there's something very different about their sound. Trip Out West starts out soft but strong, before launching into a series of incredibly diverse, lyrically unique and tight songs. There's a wide range of sounds here, and seeing these guys life is an experience in and of itself, as they move around the stage, often switching instruments.

8 - Oren Lavie, The Opposite Side of the Sea

Oren Lavie's first CD Opposite Side of the Sea is a labor of love, and has been getting a wider audience from the use of several songs in a commercial. While overall, this album is on the softer side, there's a rich variety of themes throughout the album, helped along by his rich voice and lyrics.

7 - Tina Dico, Count To Ten / Sia, Some People Have Real Problems

Ironically, these two singers have a common link: the Electronic/Pop outfits Zero 7, whom both have collaborated with for several songs over their three albums.

Tina Dico's album Count To Ten is the good sort of pop music. She starts off with an incredible voice and beat and sustains it throughout the course of the album with a number of absolutely fantastic songs that continue to impress me numerous listens later.

Sia's latest album, Some People Have Real Problems is easily her finest album to date, with an electro-popish sound with an urgent, yet at the same time relaxed feel to it. The tracks slow down and speed up but each one is just fantastic.

6 - Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs

This album got lot of nay Sayers when released - a lot of this "The band has turned their backs on their fans/roots/style" crap. Bullshit. This album is easily their strongest, with the same strong lyrical style that we've come to expect from these guys, with a richer and far more refined sound throughout. This new album is emotional, intense and rich with sound.

5 - Goodtimes Goodtimes, Glue

Technically, this came out in 2008, but I really got their album in January, so this makes the list. Goodtimes Goodtimes blew me away when I first heard their first track, Kids, with it's bright and optimistic beat that still gets me moving fifty listens later. The rest of the album is just as good too. Each song here sounds fantastic, with some excellent guitar work and lyrics. Every time I pop this into my car's CD player, I sing along, and feel good afterwards.

4 - Coldplay, Viva La Vida/Prospekt's March

I'm counting both of these albums together, along with Lhuna, as one package. Coldplay, after the commercially friendly A Rush of Blood To the Head and disappointing X&Y, proved to be an extremely fresh breath from these guys, proving that they still have the talent to not only produce a good record, but to produce one that drastically refines, changes and exceeds expectations. Viva La Vida is a tight and cohesive affair, with some of their best works to date. Prospekt's March is likewise as good, with several tracks that didn't make it on the album, but carry much of the same feel or talent along with it. Already, there's talk of a follow-up - let's hope that it's a good one.

3 - Amos Lee, Last Days at the Lodge

Amos Lee has come a very, very long way since his first, self titled debut. His second album exceeded that one, and Last Days at the Lodge likewise exceeded that one. Where Supply and Demand really changed around his sound, Last Days brings Lee back to some of his root sounds, revisits some familiar ground and breaks anew, infusing a distinct blend of soul, R&B and folk-rock into the eleven fantastic tracks. The album is intimate and emotional at times, while blatant and fresh at others.

2 - Ray LaMontagne, Gossip in the Grain

Like Amos Lee, Ray LaMontagne has improved upon his sound over his past two albums, really redefining his sound each time. Gossip in the Grain has done much of the same, giving us a new look at this singer as he's refined and honed his skills. His voice isn't as raspy as it was in Trouble, and the backing band here absolutely blows each song away. This album is emotional, touching, personal, romantic and somber all at the same time. It is easily his strongest and best work to date.

1 - Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago

Bon Iver's For Emma Forever Ago is my favorite album of the year, and I knew it from the moment I heard the first track, Flume. Recorded in a cabin in the woods during a troubling time for Justin Vernon, what we get is an album that is a mix of raw emotions that is honest, thrilling and simply beautiful to listen to. Each time that I listen to this album, I get chills throughout at the intensity and reflection presented here in the songwriting. Bon Iver has done with this album something that I thought was impossible - show me that there are still huge surprises waiting out there in the music world, and even after listening to it literally hundreds of times, it still shakes and invokes the same emotion and thrill that is present in the notes.

Winter Acoustic

Winter is finally here in Vermont. For some reason, I'm equating winter with acoustic rock, so here you go.

Hazelton - Bon Iver
Westward Bound - Fairline Parkway
Love and Some Verses - Iron & Wine
Rages of Babylon - Joseph Arthur
Northern Sky - Nick Drake
I Still Care For You - Ray LaMontagne
Saro - Samamidon
Falling Stars - Sarah Siskind
Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon & Garfunkle

Hype - Support

Concert Report: Ray LaMontagne @ the Boston Opera House

So despite having two ways in which I usually keep track of songs during concerts, my iPod (creating an on the go playlist) for bands that I have an absurd amount of music of, or a pad of paper and a pen to scribble down lyrics and song titles that I catch while trying to enjoy the show. Sadly, I left both of these methods in the car, a mile away from the concert hall and as a result don't have a set list for anyone.

That being said, I can say that the following songs were played: Hold You In My Arms, Sarah, Meg White, I Still Care For You, Three More Days, Trouble, Roses and Cigarettes, Hey Me, Hey Mama, Empty, Henry Nearly Killed Me (It's A Shame) Gossip in the Grain, You Are The Best Thing, and a couple of others that I'm forgetting.

Ray LaMontagne plays a fantastic show. One thing that I noticed right off was that he doesn't play front and center like most lead singers - he was off to the side, with the entire crew in a sort of semi-circle. I'm not sure if that was just for acoustic reasons, or if it relates somewhat to his personality, but it was something different.

The set that he played was excellent. There were a number of songs off of the new album, Gossip in the Grain, but a couple of favorites, such as Trouble and Three More Days, which was fantastic to hear. Soundwise, this was a really intimate show - the audience was fairly quiet, and seated, and it felt like we were in a much smaller place than the Opera House really was. The sound in that building was absolutely fantastic, and I've been do shows there before in which the same was true.

Ray had one guy thrown out, which caught me a little by surprise. I don't remember exactly what happened, but he seemed to get very mad all of a sudden, stopping the music, which put a little bit of a damper on the rest of the encore. He's also the first musician that I've seen do two encores, which was pretty cool.

Overall? Excellent, energetic and thoughtful performance.

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Review: Gossip in the Grain

Ever since I've started up my music blog, I've come across hundreds of new artists and found a lot that I've liked, and a lot that I haven't liked. But, there are only a handful of artists whom I literally count down the days until I can pick up their new album. This is the case with Ray LaMontagne, whom I've been a fan of since his first release, Trouble.

Gossip in the Grain is his most personal, emotional and well crafted album, and is easily one of the best albums of the year. It comes as an extremely bittersweet release for me, because a number of the songs hit so close to home for me that it literally knocked the breathe out of me during a couple of songs.

Gossip expands the sound of Trouble and Till the Sun Turns Black, building on the sound and feel of both extremely well, while not being boxed into any particular mode - this album represents an evolution in his sound - very similar to what Amos Lee did with his own third album earlier this summer, Last Days at the Lodge. The album opens with horns in the opening track, You Are The Best Thing. The playlist reads like a story - a love story, with all the hurt, joy and love with You Are the Best Thing, Let It Be Me, Sarah, I Still Care For You, and later, with Falling Through. This is the section that is absolutely brilliant, but at times, far too relatable, at least for me.

There are tracks that are easily some of the best that LaMontagne has done thus far. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, Meg White proves to be a fun listen to singer Meg White, of the White Stripes, Henry Nearly Killed Me (It's a Shame), and the title track, Gossip in the Grain. There's a wide variety of emotion and sound, and we see LaMontagne at vulnerable times, and when the cuffs come off and the sound takes right off. With this, there's a wide blend of rock, acoustic, bluegrass and country brought in here to build a fantastic sound.

This album is easily one of the best of the year, and its sure to make a high point on my end of the year lists. Its emotion, energy and spirit sets this far above most of the albums that I've listened to, and proves that LaMontagne is still capable to release better material as his music career ages, and that he is one of the best, and defining musicians of the decade.

I'm particularly excited to see LaMontagne live tomorrow night (Stay turned on Monday for a review)- he is one of the artists on my priority to see list, and it'll be nice to see his performance live. Gossip in the Grain is due out next Tuesday, October 14th.

You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne

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Ray LaMontagne!

I got tickets to see Ray LaMontagne later this week! A friend of mine is going down, and picked me up an extra, for the show in Boston's Opera House this Friday. Damn, I'm excited for this show. His new album, Gossip in the Grain, is coming soon, and from all appearances, this album is going to rock. Hard. Stay tuned for a concert review and set list.

DAMN, I can't wait.

Trouble - Ray LaMontagne
Three More Days - Ray LaMontagne

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New Video: You Are the Best Thing

With Ray LaMontagne's upcoming release just next month, a new video of the first song on the album has surfaced:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pQepjhgv1U

It's a really great song, and I'm already anticipating listening to this album. From this, and the other two songs that I've heard, I can't wait.

You Are the Best Thing - Ray Lamontagne

The Best of August

Once again, it's the close of one month, and in with another one. This past month saw the return of a number of favorites of mine with new material, and all around, some fantastic material from a numbe of really good bands.

Shelly - The Alternate Routes

This is a song that I've been hearing live when I've seen the Alternate Routes over the past year. This is an appropriately bitter song, when one of the band members found that an ex was getting married. The song has a good drive to it, and is light enough that you don't catch the edge to it. It's a good sign of things to come with their upcoming album.

You Don't Know Me - Ben Folds & Regina Spektor

I've never been big on Ben Folds, but he does turn out some good pieces every now and then - I mainly just haven't had a chance to really listen to his repetoir. You Don't Know Me is a fun duet between Folds and Regina Spektor with a deep beat that sticks out with Fold's piano work. This song works paticularly well as a duet, given the subject matter.

Silver Lining (Rilo Kiley) - Ben Gibbard

Last year, one of my favorite albums was Rilo Kiley's Under the Black Light. Back in June, Ben Gibbard, of Death Cab for Cutie covered the song Silver Lining. This is a fun cover - it's very well done, and Gibbard, while he pretty much sticks to the same song, has a good voice to match the original.

Blood Bank (Live) - Bon Iver



Untitled - New Song - Bon Iver

I've raved about Bon Iver quite a bit. There's not a whole lot that I can add to what I've said, except that these two songs are new, live and will hopefully be on the next album. Bloodbank is a fantastic song, a little more structured than some of the songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, which is interesting. The new song is from earlier this year, and is also quite good and has a fanastic beat to it.

Indecision - Carbon Leaf

This song starts with a wonderful Rock & Roll feel to it with great guitar work from Carter, and some even better vocals and lyrics with Barry, before transitioning into a very familiar feel that is typical of Carbon Leaf. I'll be seeing these guys in September, and I can't wait to hear this one live.

Love Song - The Dandy Warhols

The Dandy Warhols have been on my radar after Veronica Mars and the earlier release of this album, and the funky folk-electric/a sound really catches one's ear here. This is a really neat song with a truely unique sound.

Strange Overtones - David Byrne and Brian Eno

NPR turned me to this song. Starting off with a wonderful, laid back beat, the vocals kick in about 30 seconds in for another really unique song. Very catchy.

Running Down A Dream (Tom Petty)- Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Paint It Black (The Rolling Stones) - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Grace Potter & Co did a fantastic concert in Burlington, again. Listen to the entire thing here, while you take in a couple new songs and a couple new covers that just plain rock.

Bird Of Prey - Jentri Colello

This is an up and coming indie singer who's got a promising voice and some fun lyrics. Bird of Prey has a great, laid back beat reminiscent of Rilo Kiley.

Let It Be Me - Ray Lamontagne

You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne

Ray LaMontagne is back with a new album, soon. These two albums take cues from his first two big releases, Trouble and Till the Sun Turns Black. These two tracks are tantalizingly hopeful and optimistic, and make this one of my most anticipated records left this year. If these two tracks are anything to go by, the next one is going to be absolutely fantastic.

Falling Stars - Sarah Siskind

Lone Tree - Sarah Siskind

Sarah Siskind is a country/folk/rock singer out of Memphis, and man, she has a wonderful voice and sound. She reminds me a lot of Nanci Griffith and Alison Krauss, with a great background beat and sound, and she has a fantastic, soothing way with words.

Every Drop - Sonya Kitchell

Sonya Kitchell is another fantastic singer/songwriter who's up and coming, and this track from her latest release has a great energy and feel to it, with a beat that makes you move, and builds and builds over the song. I'm wishing that I didn't miss her when she came up to the area.



That's all for this month. Let's see what next month brings to the table.

New Music - You Are the Best Thing

Ray LaMontagne is coming out with a new album in October, Gossip in the Grain, which is due out on the 19th. One song has already leaked, Let It Be Me, and earlier this week, the first song, You Are The Best Thing, was released as a single.
This is easily one of my most anticipated songs of the year already, and I know that a lot of people are looking forwards to this one. LaMontagne has had a very good run with his albums, with the wonderful Trouble and the even better Till the Sun Turns Black. From the sounds of these first two songs, we're in for another fantastic album, with elements from his last one carrying over with the horn section. If this track and the other one are any indications, this is going to be one fantastic listen. October 19th can't come soon enough.

You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne


How Come - Ray LaMontagne

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Cover and Original: To Love Somebody

This week's Cover and Original is one that I've wanted to do for a very long time, ever since I came across Damien Rice and RayLaMontagne's cover. This is one of my favorite songs, and it's neat to hear some different takes on it. Ray and Damien's version is by far my favorite, while Janis and Eagle Eye Cherry's versions are also quite good. Then of course, there's the original, which is fantastic.

To Love Somebody (Bee Gees) - Ray Lamontagne and Damien Rice
To Love Somebody (Bee Gees) (Italian) - Nina Simone (Italian Version)
To Love Somebody (Bee Gees) - Janis Joplin
To Love Somebody (Bee Gees) - Eagle Eye Cherry
To Love Somebody - Bee Gees

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Happy

Heartbeats - José González
Comfort - Carbon Leaf
Hold You In My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie
Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
Heart Made of Sound - Softlights
Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch
Much Further To Go - Rosie Thomas

Hype - Buy

Mix

I'm hopeful. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but for the first time in a while, hopeful.

Comfort - Carbon Leaf
Hold You In My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
Stop the Bus - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Dreaming - Sara Wheeler
Song for You - Alexi Murdoch
Walk With You - Dispatch
Got To Get You Into My Life - The Beatles

Hype

V-Day

So it's Valentine's Day.

When it's good:

Destiny - Zero 7
Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
Dreaming - Sara Wheeler
Hold You In My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
This Is Us - Mark Knofler and Emmylou Harris
Love Love Love - Tristan Prettyman
Songbird - Willie Nelson
I'm A Believer - The Monkees
Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova

When it's not:
Out To Sea - Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers
Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well - Mike Doughty
Apologies - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Let It Die - Foo Fighters
Ashes and Wine - A Fine Frenzy
When The Pain Dies Down - Chris Stills
Learn To Fly - Carbon Leaf
Turpentine - Brandi Carlile

Hype - Buy

My Mix

I can't think of a good title for this mix of songs. I was fooling around with play lists on iTunes - I swear, it's a compulsion sometimes, when I came up with the first five songs, when I realized that I had something good here. When I got home from work, I pulled another dozen songs together to come up with this final list. I think that it's the best play list that I've come up with in a while. Let me know what you think:

Everybody Knows - Ryan Adams
Hang Around - Gregory Douglass
When The Pain Dies Down - Chris Stills
Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car - Iron & Wine
Hard Sun - Eddie Vedder
Good Man - Josh Ritter
Who You Are - Cary Brothers
Pressure Suit - Aqualung
Time Is A Runaway - The Alternate Routes
Toy Soldiers - Carbon Leaf
See The World - Gomez
Trouble - Ray LaMontagne
Place To Be - Nick Drake

Have a good weekend! Next week, regular features & an announcement for a new feature.

Hype - Buy

The Evolution of... Ray LaMontagne

Ray LaMontagne came into the public consciousness with his fantastic 2004 album, Trouble, and has since followed up with the 2006 album Till The Sun Turns Black. Over the past couple of years, he has released a number of absolutely fantastic songs that have made it big in both the radio and television world.
LaMontagne was born in New Hampshire and moved around a lot - his father, a musician, left the family and he was put off from music for years. He's apparently a huge fantasy fan (which is awesome), and moved to main where he worked as a shoe factory. During an early shift, he heard a song, Treetop Flyer, by Stephen Stills, and he quit and started working on music. He started touring in 1999. His demo started getting attention and he was invited to open for local folk concerts, opening for Jonathan Edwards. This attracted the attention of a record label, Chrysalis Music Publishing.

Trouble, released in 2004, is a fairly quiet album, brought to life with LaMontagne's fantastic guitar skills and songwriting. His songs are quiet, powerful and intimate. Trouble is characterized by a relatively stark sound, with some background instrumentation, but nothing major. Here, he's mainly carried with the guitar and vocals. The thing that probably really set LaMontagne apart was his voice, which has a husky feel to it that's not unlike Sam Beam (aka Iron & Wine).

Trouble - Ray LaMontagne
All The Wild Horses - Ray LaMontagne

2006 brought in a new album for LaMontagne - Till The Sun Turns Black, which reveals a fairly dramatic change with the overall sound and tone of the singer. Ray LaMontagne builds on the work that he did with Trouble, making it much richer in sound. His guitarwork has refined itself, and the introduction of more background instruments only adds and enhances the sound and feel to the album. Trumpets, piano, better bass-work and the introduction of the electric guitar have really made this album go above and beyond it's predecessor.

Three More Days - Ray LaMontagne
Be Here Now - Ray LaMontagne

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Hold You In My Arms

This is one of my favorite Ray LaMontagne songs. It fits for this weekend.

Hold You In My Arms - Ray LaMontagne

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New England Rock

I'd like to take a moment and examine a couple of bands from my neck of the woods - New England. For those of you who can't remember US geography from school, or never learned of it, New England is in the far North East section of the US, comprised of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. We've got a long and very proud history within the states, and some fantastic musicians have come from here. Here's a couple that I could come up with. Sorry Rhode Island...


Vermont - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals / Phish

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals originated in New York, where Potter went to school at St. Lawrence, but she's from Vermont, and the band is currently still based in Waitsfield Vermont, a town over from where I grew up - I actually went to high school with Grace, even though I really didn't know her personally. The Nocturnals got their name from their all night rehearsals at the school, and they released their first album in 2004, then their second in 2005, with their latest this year.

Crazy Parade - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals








Phish, well known for its live concerts rather than their studio works, formed at the University of Vermont when John Fishman, Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth got together to play in Fishman's dorm room in 1983. They were later joined by Mike Gordon and Page McConnel. The band released their first album in 1988 and they got really popular shortly after, filling a void that the Grateful Dead left when they disbanded. The band broke up in 2001 after a long tour, but most of the members are still active in the music world.

Heavy Things - Phish



Massachusetts - The Dropkick Murphys / Guster

The Dropkick Murphys originated out of Quincy, Massachusetts, and have become huge favorites in the region with their punk/Irish sound. Annually, they play in Boston on St. Patrick's Day. The group formed in 1996, releasing a couple of EPs before their 1998 record Do or Die. They're recently released their latest, entitled The Meanest of Times.

State of Massachutetts - The Dropkick Murphys

Guster

Guster is based out of Boston, Mass, and was founded at Tufts University there when Adam, Ryan and Brian met while in attendance. They released two albums prior to 1999 that were sleeper hits, but gained traction with the 1999 album Lost and Gone Forever and have recently released their latest album, Ganging Up On The Sun.

Hang On - Guster

Connecticut - The Alternate Routes / Rane

The Alternate Routes formed a couple of years ago, out of Bridgeport, Connecticut and released their first album, Good and Reckless and True in 2005, which was later re-released earlier this year. The band started when two of the members, Eric and Tim met at Fairfield University in the state. They relocated to Boston and New York for a little while, and now they're back in Connecticut. Hopefully recording new music...


Time Is A Runaway - The Alternate Routes

Rane

Rane is a band that's still pretty small, based out of Hartford Connecticut with a sound that they describe as 'progressive pop', that's quite good. I got hooked on them right away, and their first couple albums are very fun to listen to. They started their own record label, Tides Records, and have released 8 albums in the last couple of years. Haven't heard much from them lately, hopefully we'll hear from them soon...

From The Vine - Rane


Maine (And New Hampshire)- Ray LaMontagne

Ray Lamontagne is the big artist out of Maine at the moment, and is one of my favorite folk/rock singers out there. He's got a deep and gravelly voice, not too unlike that of Sam Beam, (Iron & Wine). LaMontagne was born in New Hampshire, and moved around a lot as a child before settling in Maine. Now based there, he's been singing since 1999. His latest release is the fantastic 'Till The Sun Turns Black.

Trouble - Ray Lamontagne

Rhode Island - I couldn't find anyone from there. Anyone know of any?

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Duet - LaMontagne & Rice

In addition to the Covers and Original feature that I'm doing, there's a couple of other similar things that I like to collect and listen to - collaborations between artists during concerts or in the studio. It's always something cool to take a listen to. There's some familiar couplings out there, and sometimes, there's the occasional concert collaborations.
To start off, one such pairing that I've come across really worked - Damien Rice and Ray LaMontagne, where they covered To Love Somebody (Originally the Bee Gees) before a French audience. This is a fantastic pairing - Both artists work extensively with the acoustic guitar, and their playing compliments each other's fantastically. LaMontagne takes the lead for this song while Rice picks up after the first chorus, but their voices are so similar that it's hard to tell them apart most of the time, without really listening to it.

The song also really fits with some of their music. Damien Rice has a sort of brooding thing that goes on, and Ray LaMontagne has some of his more senimental moments, for which this song really suits the two of them. I like this song - it's the perfect one for my current mood at the moment.

To Love Somebody - Ray LaMontagne & Damien Rice


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