The goal of this recurring column is to shed light (perhaps) on an artist's personal life, which can be a rather difficult endeavor with such a private figure as Ray LaMontagne.
I haven't posted a "Ten Things About" article since the Thom Yorke feature, "Paranoid Android," back on October 19th (click here to read), so here it goes...
Ten Things about singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne:
1) Ray's dad was a musician who abandoned his family, leaving his resourceful mother to fend for her six children on her own.
2) He spent countless hours sitting in the woods, reading fantasy novels.
3) He once worked in a shoe factory.
4) Stephen Stills' "Treetop Flyer" inspired him to quit the shoe factory and write songs.
5) Ray recorded his debut album "Trouble" in two weeks at Sunset Sound.
6) In 1999, Ray did some tutoring in order to help subsidize his first tour.
7) Ray doesn't say much during a performance: "A musician that talks too much is like a magician who does a trick and then tells you how he did it."
8) Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek are two of his favorite novels.
9) The Band's Music from Big Pink and Van Morrison's Astral Weeks are two of his favorite albums.
10) Ray lives on a farm in Maine with his wife and children (and they don't own a television).
Recent Comments