Ray Lamontagne / God Willin and the Creek Don't Rise -- Concert in Bangor

Thursday night Ray Lamontange appeared on the Bangor Waterfront in concert. Lamontagne who has ties to Maine has become a leading singer of the folksy soulful ballad type. A few years ago his music was given a big boost by the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack and recently of course we have all seen the Travlers dog worrying about his bones to the tune of Trouble.

The days sun turned to mist and fog by the time Lamontagne took the stage but he was in fine form. I have read crowd estimates as low as 2000 but it seemed like more to me as most chairs seemed to be occupied. I am sure I am not a good judge of crowds.

Lamontagne played his earlier cuts such as Trouble and Jolene ( a personal favorite of mine ) but much of the setlist was from the most recent album. The title track of that album God Willin and the Creek Don't Rise was a highlight as was the radio hit Beg Steal or Borrow. Interestingly on the latter Ray changed the meter of the verse a bit with a stonger emphasis on the " Young Man " in the chorus.

Repo Man and Henry Nearly Died allowed the singer to stretch his musical feet and allowed me to enjoy the harmonica. Nothing makes my feet move more than a harmonica, not sure why that is.

Other highlights included New York City's Killing Me and another favorite of mine Like Rock and Roll Radio. On this song Ray compares asks if a relationship is over much like the lost relatinship between Rock and Roll and the Radio. This is a clever comment on the state of modern music.

The crowd was for the most part young granolas and some yuppie older folks. Comments I heard were that the singer had little stage presence which is true, Ray is notorioulsy shy and thank you was about all one heard. His voice is mesmerizing, no autotume here and clearly not tricks in the studio. This man can sing and play.

The only slightly offbeat part of the whole show was the abbreviated encore of only one song. Certainly there were many more anticapted songs that could have been played and an encore of one song is very rare. Looking at his setlists in other places Ray like most performers always plays two songs so one wonders why he cut the encore to one song...the eleven o clock curfew was not close. He did complain about being soaked which might have not been the smartest comment to a crowd in an uncovered setting.

Still the show was great, the man can sing and I strongly encourage you to pick up some of his music. Ray Lamontagne is a voice you will not forget