I don’t have many things that I regret in life, but one of them was not seeing Ray LaMontagne live in concert. Two years ago, right when I was moving from Northern Indiana to Columbus, Ohio, I won a radio contest and I received two free tickets to Guster/Ray LaMontagne concert. I wanted to save money and didn’t see myself driving all the way down to Indianapolis and then driving back home to just drive to Columbus the next day. I didn’t know who Ray LaMontagne was at the time, but I have seen Guster before and they were amazing.

About three months after I moved to Ohio I decided that I wanted to investigate how Ray LaMontagne sounded. I wasn’t too impressed at first, but the album “Til The Sun Turns Black” started to be played everyday. I ended up getting his two previous albums (“Raycharles LaMontagne” and “Trouble), both of the albums are excellent and led me to download a live performance at Bonnaroo Festival in 2005.

At first I thought Mr. LaMontagne was British, his style of musicianship sounded very influenced, plus his voice sounded as if there were a hint of accent. I saw a picture of him and I still thought it was British, I mean look at that beard (a bit Cat Stevens-ish). I later found out that he was born in New Hampshire, but his family moved quite a bit and he ended up living in about every corner of the United States.

Ray LaMontagne makes great music and should be shared by all. Here is a performance of “Empty” that was performed on the BBC (see, I knew he was at least popular in the UK).