On a particularly abysmal night that involves rain, traffic jams and zero parking spaces we eventually stumble blindly into the atmospheric gloom of Night & Day on Oldham Street. It’s early doors, but there’s a good crowd already which will grow as Ray’s 10pm entrance approaches. Beer in hand we ensconce ourselves behind the sound desk and catch the support.
NATHAN TURNER creates a good first impression with his expansive sounding acoustic set and fine voice. I don’t catch any of the song’s titles but his delivery and presence is strong enough to generate warmth in the crowd and he leaves the stage to encouraging applause.
I’m less sure about AMY SMITH. She has a great voice but I find her too safe and polished, as are her songs. Her style and manner is accommodating and mildly diverting yet I want more from her than just the beautiful phrasing over an acoustic guitar. She speaks confidently between songs and has a restrained and poised stage presence. But I want animation and I think ultimately it’s all just too polite for my tastes; maybe I’m nitpicking because it’s not her fault that I can see where her songs are going or it could just be that she’s got a stool to sit on while my back is aching from standing in an awkward position for the past two hours. She ends with a cover of Blind Faith’s ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’ – which is one of my all-time favourites – and I sing along but my mind is elsewhere and it’s not Amy who’s taken me there.
It’s been a while since I’ve felt such heightened expectation of seeing someone live. The fact that RAY LAMONTAGNE’s debut ‘Trouble’ is still being played at least 2 to 3 times a week at my gaff has done little to lessen the impact I have from hearing it. Tonight Ray is without a band or any of producer Ethan Johns’ sympathetic trimmings. As the screen lifts to reveal him alongside just a double-bass player, he strikes me as a fragile and unassuming figure, almost like a lost child. The crowd’s response is admirably supportive and they must leave Ray with little doubt of their excitement to have him here, to hear his songs live, hopeful that he will perform them well: which is exactly what Ray does. And how.
That such a diffident man should possess such a powerful and emotive voice is just astonishing. It’s a well-worn discussion about which singers ‘keep it real’ but with Ray you can’t help but conclude that probably 99% of singers out there never really find their true expression from within and of that 1% very few have the luck of reaching an audience through recording. Ray’s voice contrasts so starkly with his look and demeanour you feel that he must have been sent to us solely as a way to personify heaven on earth through his ability to reach deeply into that inner part of his being called ‘the soul’ and give it voice. I can’t imagine any other way of equating the man I see before me with what emanates from his mouth.
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New songs play alongside the familiar tracks from ‘Trouble’ and Ray never puts a foot wrong, which is more than can be said at times for his microphone. On the more up tempo tracks such as ‘Hold you in my arms’, ‘Shelter’ and the delight that is ‘Forever my friend’ it’s clear that the role of the double-bassist is as much to coax Ray as it is to assist in creating the music. Often I see him giving Ray looks of encouragement and offering words of support between songs and it becomes even more obvious that Ray is a painfully shy man who has yet to reconcile his inner process of making music with the external process of sharing that music with an audience. When he sings his eyes remain permanently closed and as soon as he finishes he looks to the double-bassist for affirmation of the applause that rings out. This all serves to bring an edge to the proceedings when the bassist takes his leave about half-way through the set and Ray goes solo. Without his emotional crutch will he stumble in the spotlight?
My concerns are unfounded because if anything Ray goes to another level, particularly on ‘Hannah’ where he is so totally captivating in his performance that all my senses seem to be locked on this man to the extent that I am unaware of anything or anyone else around me; I actually forget to clap. The spell is broken by the return of the dodgy microphone on ‘Burn’ but he’s already done more than enough to put this gig in the ‘classic’ category. The double-bassit returns and occasionally Ray mutters a few words of thank you and before you know it we’re on to the last song. I’m hoping for ‘All the wild horses’ but instead we get another new track ‘Can I stay with you’(?) which Ray offers as his way of thanking us all for making him feel so welcome. Suffice to say it’s another stunning piece of music.
And then he’s gone. No encore, no fuss, no regrets. It’s been a special night on which I’ve had the pleasure and the privilege to witness a rare and magical talent in rewardingly intimate surroundings. His next tour can’t come round soon enough.
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