Ray Lamontagne's Trouble: misery made good

By María Eugenia Guerra

I haven't even begun to listen in earnest to the lyrics of Ray Lamontagne's Trouble. It's his voice and the incredible guitar licks and the accompanying five-piece string section that have held me rapt for the last couple of hours, not to mention the story of his serendipitous and rather meteoric rise from a shoe factory worker in Maine to the self-taught musician and author of the ten songs on this well received first album.

These are songs about trouble, the kind you might have if you've been depressed a long time and think your life may be devoid of meaning or that you're working a dead-end job. There's that kind of trouble in Ray Lamontagne's voice, and some about love gone flat and deals with the devil. There is so much feeling and depth in his voice that it is as much an instrument as the guitar, piano, cello, and violins that accompany, follow, and rise to his sonorous lead.

According to the official Ray website, Ray woke by rote at 4:00 a.m. to get going to the Lewiston shoe factory. But on that particular morning he awoke to Stephen Stills' “Treetop Flyer” on the clock radio. He didn't make it to work that day. Instead he searched for the Stills album Stills Alone, an album he says led him to Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Ray Charles, which brought him the understanding that you “could take all this stuff that's making you miserable and turn it into something beautiful.”

He quit his job and made the life-changing decision to make music. He opened for folkies playing in the area and got a gig at a friend's company picnic which was attended by the governor of Maine , who invited Ray to a Willie Nelson concert. The governor introduced Ray to Jamie Ceretta at Chrysalis Music Publishing. The rest is history compressed into a very short time period.

Working with producer and musician Ethan Johns, Ray made Trouble in two weeks. The album was released in mid-September 2004, and the shy and retiring Lamontagne is enjoying a Norah Jones-ish buzz about his work.