I only recently discovered the music of Ray LaMontagne and upon listening to his CD for the first time, I was blown away. So when I found out he was playing a free show in Long Beach , I definitely had to be there. This past Sunday around 200 people gathered at Fingerprints Records in Long Beach to watch Ray give a special and intimate in-store performance. In typical SoCal manner, Ray showed up fashionably late to an eagerly awaiting crowd. When a clearly groggy Ray took the stage, he quietly announced that he just woke up, which got a nice chuckle from the rest of the crowd and myself.
Rays ballads, as he described them, clearly captivated the crowd from beginning to end. He began the set with Jolene, off his debut record Trouble, and soon invited his bassist, CT, to come up and play with him. Together they played a mix of new songs and songs from Rays album. As good as his songs are on the cd, it is definitely better live. He sings with a lot passion and emotion. And even in his groggy state, he was still quite witty and playful with the crowd in-between songs. At one point someone asks if he was taking requests and Ray quickly replied sure only to deny the audience of their requests with a smile that cracked up everyone. On another occasion, Ray took a few minutes to browse the vinyls behind him and comment on some of them. It was pretty funny. All in all it was a good time by an awesome musician. I will be definitely catching him again the next time he comes into town.
