| Product Summary | | Label: RCA/RED | | UPC: 00886973267028 | | Release Date: 10/14/2008 | | Buy.com Sku: 209612115 | | Item#: M4FVS5 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 2543 | Format:  CD |
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(C) (P) 2008 Stone Dwarf LLC, under license to RCA Music Group
| | Lauded singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne's third album, Gossip In The Grain was recorded with returning producer, Ethan Johns in Box, England, and touching upon a range of styles and musical settings - spanning pastoral folk, railroad blues, front porch country and plangent balladry. Gossip In The Grain proves to be his most creative and emotionally expansive collection to date.
Whereas LaMontagne's two previous albums, 'Trouble' and 'Till The Sun Turns Black', were largely solo affairs, with Johns serving as multi-tasking instrumentalist, Gossip In The Grain sees him joined by members of his touring band, bassist Jennifer Condos and guitarist Eric Heywood (with Johns largely handling drum duties). Along with his band members, LaMontagne is also joined on two tracks - "A Falling Through" and "I Still Care For You" - by singer/songwriter Leona Naess.
As LaMontagne explains "It was time to open up a little bit more, not be quite so reserved in my choice of songs that I wanted to record." Recently called by Vanity Fair "a fresh reminder that the genuine artist is not yet an extinct species," Gossip In The Grain reconfirms Ray LaMontagne as an artist and a craftsman without limits, a songwriter who is able to work his melodic gifts and distinctive lyricism through any of the myriad musical traditions that catches his fancy.
"While there's not a bad one in the bunch, once you've heard LaMontagne loosen up, you're left starving for more of it." Billboard
"The intense and intensely bearded Maine singer-songwriter showcases a lighter side on his superbly crafted third disc." Boston Globe
"...[LaMontagne]'s most cohesive, career-defining album to date." PopMatters
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Ray LaMontagne (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica); Eric Heywood (guitar, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar, background vocals); Ethan Johns (electric guitar, banjo, ukulele, piano, Hammond b-3 organ, Wurlitzer organ, Mellotron, bass instrument, drums, percussion, background vocals); Lucy Wilkins, Howard Gott, Jules Singleton, Sally Herbert (violin); Sophie Sirota, Charlie Cross (viola); Chris Worsey, Sara Wilson (cello); Pete Long, Peter Long (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Jonathan Scott , Jonathan Scott (trumpet); Winston Rollins (trombone); Dominic Monks (synthesizer); Jennifer Condos (bass instrument, drums, background vocals); Louise Marshall, Leona Naess, Louise Claire Marshall, Melanie Marshall, Billie Godfrey (background vocals). | | Audio Mixer: Ethan Johns. | | Arranger: Ethan Johns. | | Rootsy singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne returns with his third album, downplaying the vintage soul vibes of his earlier work in favor of a more idiosyncratic feel rather akin to the sound that Cat Power has achieved with her recent albums. More so than on earlier albums, LaMontagne has toned down the old-fashioned Stax and Motown feel, although there's still a natural bluesiness both in his vocals and in the soulful, molasses-slow arrangements. However, the album's biggest outlier turns out to be its best song; "Meg White," a tongue-in-cheek ode to the White Stripes' drummer, sounds like a peculiar blend of that band and "I'm Not In Love" era 10cc, and, somehow, the combination works. |
Producer: Ethan Johns; Ethan Johns |
Engineer: Dom Monk |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 10/14/2008 | | Original Release Date : 2008 | | Catalog ID : 32670 | | Label : RCA Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00886973267028 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.126)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "'I Still Care for You' has a gentle Radiohead vibe; 'Winter Birds' verges on psych folk. There's also a new playfulness..."Spin (p.96)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "LaMontagne gets a bit more expansive here, gently juking his earthy rasp with Stax-y horns, guitar twang, and lilting lady backup vocals." Entertainment Weekly (p.101)
- "This soft-spoken singer-songwriter has the kind of earthy rasp and wounded sincerity that melts hearts and suggests lots of woodshedding with old Van Morrison records." Uncut 8 of 10
When Ray LaMontagne came out of nowhere in 2004 with the emotionally charged Trouble, most observers saw him as a withdrawn loner compelled by some mysterious internal force to reveal his scarred psyche -- Montgomery Clift with an acoustic guitar. But even then, with his achingly intimate ballads, this iconoclastic artist was also crafting rustic, gritty tales revealing the tragic flaws of their hardscrabble antiheroes, later channeling his reverence for Otis Redding and other southern soul greats into a style that suited him as well as the confessional and the narrative modes...And while LaMontagne has never tried to obscure the intensely personal nature of his love songs with metaphor or flowery verbiage, the transition from Trouble's life-affirming expressions of commitment, protection and ardor to the self-flagellating recriminations of Till The Sun Turns Black came not just from life experience but also from the courage and confidence he'd had gained from performing in a front of empathetic audiences who hung on to his every word and sigh. This artistic and personal growth brings a breathtaking immediacy to his third album...For Gossip In The Grain, once again produced by Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams), LaMontagne brought bassist Jennifer Condos (Adams, Teddy Thompson) and guitarist/steel player Eric Heywood (Son Volt, Pretenders) from his touring band into the studio with him. - Bud Scoppa
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| | Bio | | | Ray LaMontagne With his remarkable, rough hewn vocals and evocative, finely etched songs, Ray LaMontagne has, in but a few short years, become the rare artist of whom the world waits with to see what each new work will reveal. Now, on his much anticipated third album, the Maine-based singer and songwriter has crafted a warm and welcoming record which unveils heretofore untapped depths of ingenuity and optimism. Touching upon a range of styles and musical setting spanning pastoral folk, railroad blues, front porch country, and plangent balladry Gossip in the Grain proves to be LaMontagne's most creative and emotionally expansive collection to date. LaMontagne's 2004 debut, Trouble, became one of that year's most acclaimed debuts, spawning an instant classic single in the album's title track. He returned two years later with the stunning Till the Sun Turns Black, a deeply personal work haunted by a complex and compelling melancholy. The album proved both another popular and critical success, debuting in the top 30 on the Billboard 200 and further marking LaMontagne as a major American artist. After spending 18 long months on the road, LaMontagne returned to Maine and decompressed. He listened to little music, choosing to focus his energies on restoring his new house, once owned by the late Norman Mailer. In early 2008, he began plotting out his next record and before winter's end, was ready to return to work. Where LaMontagne's previous records had been recorded closer to home, this time he opted to cross the Atlantic in order to work alongside his longtime collaborator, producer Ethan Johns at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire. "Ethan came to me last time," LaMontagne says. "I was living in Woodstock and he traveled out there so I could be close to home. He recently moved back to England and he lives about 10 minutes from the studio, so it was only fair that I go to him this time."
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