Till The Sun Turns Black–Review of the Music and Wisdom

Of RAY LAMONTAGNE

By Ken Pothier–Southern New Hampshire

It is not often that a work of music captures your ears and then steals your heart in touching emotions and feelings on first listen.

Ray Lamontagne with his CD Till The Sun Turns Black drew me in on the first song and I found myself sitting up to hear the wisdom of the lyrics in this work by an artist that is a Wizard of Words, capturing deep feelings and channeling them thru music.

Music that is haunting, ambient and tranquil at times and rises when needed as high as the depth of this mans feelings. This is a man who captures the singer songwriter musicianship that Jackson Browne and Dan Fogelberg did on their breakthrough albums years ago. I also felt the depth that the Beatle’s Rubber Soul and Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water made me feel on first listens to those works of art and music. This is Enya on testosterone with real musicians capturing lyrics and feelings that take balls to touch.

Drawn in on first listen, better and more nuanced each time. It is good as background or as a place to tap feelings and emotions. Ray goes deep in palpating words and music perfectly blended as if channeled from the wisdom of the ancestors.

From BE HERE NOW

“Don’t let your mind get weary and confused- your will be still don’t try”

“Don’t let your heart get heavy- child inside you there is strength that lies”

“Don’t let your soul get lonely- child its only time it will go by”

“Don’t look for love in faces places- it’s in you that’s where you’ll find (it)

“Be here now- here now- Be here now- hear now”

Writer and musician–lyrical art study that helped me touch feelings of my own.

From EMPTY: “I never learned to count my blessings- I choose instead to dwell in my disasters”

“Somehow it’s still hard to let go of my pain- will I always feel this way so empty so estranged”

“of these cutthroat busted sunsets cold and damp white mornings I have grown weary”

“If thru cracked and dusty dime store lips I spoke these words would no one hear me”

And how about these killer lines from the same song: “Well I looked my demons in the eyes laid bare my chest said do your best to destroy me- said I’ve been to hell and back so many times I must admit you kind of bore me”

The real musicians including Ray play; acoustic guitar, piano, strings, violins, celli, bowed bass, percussion, viola, B3, Wurlitzer, electric piano, electric guitar, trumpet, sax, dobro, flute, uke, acoustic bass, mellophone, euphonium, Spanish guitar, French horn, reed organ,

See if such strength in word and music draws you in and hauntingly channels wisdom while touching your feelings.