LaMontagne, Ray

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Ray LaMontagne

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

Just a few years prior to his second major label album in 2006, Ray LaMontagne lived with his wife and two children in a remote area of New Hampshire, in a cabin he built himself. The house had no electricity or running water, and they preferred it that way. This isolated existence, coupled with LaMontagne's childhood spent drifting from one poor home to another, formed a foundation for LaMontagne's inspiring collection of soul inspired folk-rock music. With a handful of homemade demos and two critically praised albums, LaMontagne came from seemingly nowhere and by 2004 breathed in fresh new air to the long-forgotten genre of a major label singer-songwriter. With a powerful singing voice that recalls Van Morrison and Otis Redding at the same time, LaMontagne's unique blend of soulful singing and folk roots lends itself to an undeniably classic sound. LaMontagne was quickly hailed as "a future legendary American singer-songwriter whose raw voice can both pin you to the wall and bring tears to your eyes," according to Nick Duerden in London's The Independent.

Born in New Hampshire, LaMontagne grew up with his mother and five siblings. For much of his childhood, the family moved from town to town across the United States. With little money in her pockets, LaMontagne's mother moved from job to job, wherever she could find work and shelter for her children. "We were itinerant, living all over the country, my mother, siblings and myself," LaMontagne revealed to The Sun. "We lived pretty much wherever we could, with relatives, in a bus, [or in] a converted chicken coop, where I recall my mom stacking apple crates to section off an area that she called her room." LaMontagne's drifter lifestyle would continue throughout his adult life, albeit on his own terms. At 17, LaMontagne left his family and moved around until he ended up in a cabin in Lewiston, Maine, at the age of 20. He kept mostly to himself, venturing into town to work odd carpentry jobs before he settled on a job at a shoe factory. Working long hours, LaMontagne would often miss the daylight completely, waking up at 4 a.m. and working through until nightfall. It certainly wasn't a dream job, and LaMontagne's loner lifestyle was beginning to catch up with him. But one morning when his alarm clock went off at its usual time of 4 a.m., he heard a song on the radio that would change his life forever. Stephen Stills's "Tree Top Flyer" woke LaMontagne up that morning, and he was so possessed by the unequivocal beauty of the song that instead of going to work that day, he went to the record store. At the shop he found the album Stills Alone, and without knowing it began to build a new life. "I listened to it and I was transformed," LaMontagne told The Sun. "It killed me … it was huge. I just knew: ‘This is what I'm gonna do.’ That morning really changed everything … my whole life."

LaMontagne found a new hobby as he bought up LPs at Enterprise Records in Portland. "I lived for the chance to get back there and dig through the stacks, find something new, something that I hadn't heard— whether it was another Stephen Stills record or Bob Dylan, Neil Young or the Band, Sonny Boy Williamson, Nina Simone, just a gazillion people," he told the Washington Post's Richard Harrington. "I loved everything, and I lived for that time after work, putting on a record and having a sandwich or macaroni and cheese, whatever I could pull together at that time and just listening to those records." He found solace in the folk, soul, and jazz music of the 1960s and 1970s. The music gave him a new outlook on his life. "I was in a very dark place and very self-destructive and very close to killing myself in various ways," he told Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone. "It was like I found a religion. I realized that you could take all this stuff that's making you miserable and turn it into something beautiful."

A dusty guitar in the corner finally got picked up and LaMontagne taught himself how to play and sing. "It was just a feeling," he told the Warwick Boar's Dan Crowhurst. "For a long time, I wasn't releasing this pent up something inside of me; this endless well of emotion." He recorded a few tracks at home and played at local coffee shops and pubs in the late 1990s. Along the way, he got married and had two children, and moved the family into a cabin he built himself. While living the rustic lifestyle of a nomad, LaMontagne finally began to emerge into the public as a compelling singer-songwriter. A chance occurrence landed one of LaMontagne's home-recorded demos in the hands of a man who worked for Chrysalis Music Publishing signing new talent to the company.

Chrysalis put up the money for LaMontagne to produce a recording even before they had a label to release it. LaMontagne went to Los Angeles to record for two weeks with renowned producer Ethan Johns. Known for his work with Ryan Adams and Kings of Leon, Johns recorded most of the songs live, to tape, with LaMontagne singing while Johns played drums a few feet away. During the two short weeks of recording, LaMontagne also enlisted Nickel Creek's Sarah Watkins to play fiddle and sing on the tracks "Hannah" and "All the Wild Horses," and Stephen Stills's daughter Jennifer Stills lent her voice to "Narrow Escape." Everything was coming full circle for LaMontagne, and rather quickly as well.

Those who heard LaMontagne's record knew they had something special on their hands. But the songwriter thought of himself as no different from anyone else, and had no fantasies of becoming a popular artist. It was actually that very same working-man image, the everyday Joe with a classic voice, that pulled in the major labels. Ready to introduce a new artist for the adult alternative format, RCA quickly signed LaMontagne and released his debut album, Trouble, in September of 2004.

Critics praised Trouble for its timeless yet unconventional appeal. Some hailed him as the New Dylan or the singer-songwriter for a younger generation. "Trouble reveals a man racked with emotion yet full of grace," wrote The Sun. For an album that LaMontagne thought no one would want to hear, Trouble sold over 250,000 copies in the United States and earned the musician the tag of Rolling Stone's "Hot Songwriter" for 2004. The record was a slow burner, but got an enormous push after LaMontagne received support from an unlikely source. In 2005, in the finales for American Idol, winner Taylor Hicks sang "Trouble" to a TV audience of millions. Coincidentally, former Idol winner Kelly Clarkson regularly sang LaMontagne's "Shelter" during her live shows.

After the release of Trouble, RCA sent LaMontagne on the road for almost two years. It was a difficult process at first for the known recluse. While LaMontagne did his best to keep his personal life a mystery, it was rumored that his relationship with his wife had come to an end by 2006. In 2006 he re-teamed with his producer to record a sophomore album, this time in New York's Allaire Studios. With a better sense of himself and his voice, LaMontagne set to work on a new album that reached out of his comfort zone. "It's definitely not Trouble, Part 2," he said of the new record on his official website. "Every song asks to be sung in a different way. If I were to sing every song in a classic soul style, none of the songs on this record would be effective. I've tried to follow the songs." For lyrical inspiration, LaMontagne chose to look outside himself. "It's so easy to get caught up in your experiences," he stated on his website. "But there are billions and billions of other experiences going on. I guess the album is just me trying to look at things beyond myself, wondering what it is to be alive and what it's all about."

For the Record …

Born in New Hampshire.

Signed to RCA Records, 2004; released debut, Trouble, 2004; released Till the Sun Turns Black, 2006.

Addresses: Record company—RCA, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. Website—Ray LaMontagne Official Website: http://www.raylamontagne.com.

RCA released LaMontagne's sophomore album, Till the Sun Turns Black, in August of 2006. The album featured his voice as an instrument, painting his folk-soul visions with moody and atmospheric brushes. "With its ethereal string arrangements, colorful percussion, and meaty horn sections," wrote Judith Edelman in Acoustic Guitar, "Till the Sun Turns Black stretches a story into a drama, a moment into infinity, and the simple descriptive into the positively cinematic." A loner who now sings songs for the masses, LaMontagne still likes to keep to himself. "I don't say much on stage because I don't have to," he told Harrington. "I don't say much in my social life, either. … I think that makes people uncomfortable sometimes, but audiences have come to understand that. And if there's a night where we're all feeling really good and a little bit of chatting happens, hey, that's fun, too. But for me, it's just about the music."