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Ray Lamontagne played the Tower Theater in Upper Darby (Philadelphia, PA) on 04-04-2009.  This was the second time that I had the opportunity to photograph the prolific singer songwriter, Ray Lamontagne. 

Ray Lamontagne broke out on the music scene with his debut, Trouble, and took the whole singer/songwriter community by surprise.   A few songs off this debut album widespread in popularity, one was even performed on the mega-pop show American Idol (“Trouble” was performed in 2006 and 2007 on American Idol).  The amount of publicity Ray gained from this first album was a blessing and a curse in a way.

Ray Lamontagne at a time was a carpenter living with his wife and kids in an RV on his property while he was building a log cabin.  When the cabin was finally finished and they decided to sell the RV to buy Ray a Martin guitar to write music.  Needless to say the career that followed immensely improved the well being for him and his family.  But at the same time, Ray Lamontagne suffers from a bit of stage fright and other anxieties partially due to his rough childhood.  As result, Ray does not do a lot of interviews and likes to keep the stage and audience darkly lit to keep them isolated a bit.

Ray’s live performances are astonishing.  He has one of the best male vocals I have ever heard, a raspy and soulful mix that lends well to his creative songwriting.  His songwriting has always been in comparison to the great Van Morrison and his touring band performs them well.

The most rocking song of the night was certainly “Meg White” off Gossip In The Grain.  The drums for this song are thunderous much like Meg White’s own drumming technique with The White Stripes.  While the song was not as an obvious high point for me on the album, it certainly grabbed my attention live.  The most captivating song of the night was easily “Jolene” which was performed solo by Ray and the audience was completely silent throughout the entire song.

Ray pieces together words and music with some of the best writers in the world.  I can not wait for teh next album and tour that Ray produces, if you have not heard his music yet go out and buy “Trouble” and start there.

The setlist for the night was as follows:

You Are Best Thing
Hold You In My Arms
Let It Be Me
I Still Care For You
Empty
Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s A Shame)
Allie, You Ought to Be A Married Woman By Now
You Can Bring Me Flowers
Roses
Burn   **(Ray solo, no band)
Jolene   **(Ray solo, no band)
Achin’ All The Time
Meg White
Hey Me, Hey Mama
Shelter
Trouble
Three More Days
Gossip in the Grain
All The Wild Horses

Jennifer Condos: bass
Eric Heywood: guitar
Ethan Johns: drums