Preview: LaMontagne can't escape city spotlight

Published on Tuesday 8 September 2009 09:20

BY HIS own admission, Ray LaMontagne isn't comfortable playing the fame game. He shuns the spotlight, hates giving interviews and, on the rare occasions when he does, says stuff like "I have no image" and "I'm not marketable in any way".

Granted, he's never going to be asked to front an advertising campaign for Gap, but the Wilton, Maine, native is nevertheless one of the most compelling live performers in the world today.

The gravelly-voiced folk-pop troubadour, who went from shoe factory worker to million-selling artist in the space of a few short years, will demonstrate this at the Usher Hall tonight, where he performs latest album Gossip In The Grain.

Whereas LaMontagne's two previous albums – 2004's Trouble and 2006's Till The Sun Turns Black – were largely solo affairs, with prolific producer Ethan 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 New York-born singer/songwriter Leona Naess, daughter of Arne Neass Jr, the Norwegian mountaineer who married Diana Ross in 1985.

As he 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."

LaMontagne last visited the Capital in November 2007, on that occasion leaving The Playhouse stage to a standing ovation from a packed auditorium.

Expect him to repeat the trick tonight.

Ray LaMontagne, Usher Hall, Lothian Road, tonight, 7pm, 17.50-25, 0131-228 1155