The Mountain

Wednesday night we headed out to the Ray Lamontagne concert at Massey Hall. I'd never heard of Ray until I started working at Sweetspot and my colleague Ashley brought him to my attention. Then we got his new CD, Gossip in the Grain, in the office and now I can't look back.

The man sings folk songs based on themes of love and pain. He has a dark past and it comes through in one of the most soulful voices I've ever heard. Of course J poo-poohs anything I like first, but even he couldn't deny how good Ray is and instantly became a fan.

(Also the story is that Ray quit his factory worker job upon hearing a Steven Stills song. My resident gee-tar player loves that story.)

The concert was full of woo-hoo-ers, American Eagle couples and girls who watch One Tree Hill. These are not my people. When a performer is so shy that he prefers to sing in practical darkness, I think it's best to leave the Woo-hoos at home. Also, probably a good idea to turn the flash off the digital camera when a man is singing about his heart on his sleeve bleeding onto the floor.

"Weird crowd," I said to J while we snacked on Sesame Snaps and waited for the streetcar home. "There weren't any hipsters there.... it was like a crowd of Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews fans."

J: "You're right! I saw two guys wearing Dave Matthews t-shirts!"

OK, so it's kind of mainstream folk and there's a snooty, cynical part of me that wants to be too cool for that. But these songs about love, well they did their trick. I can honestly say that I've never been at a concert (or anywhere for that matter) where J and I were wrapped in each other's arms, swaying like a cheesy cliché (remember our last live performance outing?), but that happened last night. And I think we FELT in love for the first time in a long time.

I'm attaching a few videos here so you can get a feel for what I'm talking about. When he sang "Trouble" it was as though he were singing to his wife (they live in a farm house in Maine with their two kids -- how's that for romantic sounding?) and so powerful that I got goosebumps. Amazing. (You can thank me for this reco on your next nookie night!)