Ray LaMontagne

Grammy-winning vocalist Ray LaMontagne possesses a timbre often likened to a rougher, gravel-textured interpretation of Van Morrison and Tim Buckley, aligning him with figures such as Iron & Wine through his creation of folk material that shifts between richly textured soundscapes and closely observed, grounded simplicity. After issuing his opening full-length effort, Trouble, in 2004, he progressively expanded his sonic range by adding brass and orchestral elements to 2006’s Til the Sun Turns Black and later conjuring the psychedelic pop and country-rock atmosphere of the late 1960s and early 1970s on his fifth release, Supernova, which Dan Auerbach produced; that 2014 set marked his third consecutive project to reach number three on the Billboard 200. His eighth studio album, Monovision, arrived in 2020 as his initial completely self-produced and self-performed recording. Returning to outside collaboration, he explored classic pop-soul textures on “Step Into Your Power” in advance of the 2024 LP Long Way Home.

Raymond Charles Jack LaMontagne entered the world in Nashua, New Hampshire, during 1973. His parents separated soon afterward, prompting his mother to relocate her six children repeatedly in pursuit of work and shelter, so LaMontagne spent his formative years repeatedly entering new schools, when schooling occurred at all. He nevertheless completed high school and later took a job at a Maine shoe factory, where exposure to Stephen Stills’ “Tree Top Flyer” on the radio prompted an immediate decision to pursue a life as a singer and instrumentalist.

By the middle of 1999 he had assembled a ten-song demo that reached Jamie Ceretta at Chrysalis; the publishing company signed the songwriter and paired him with producer Ethan Johns, yielding the debut album Trouble. RCA acquired and issued the set in September 2004, drawing critical notice for tracks such as “Trouble” and the cinematic sweep of “Narrow Escape.” A second RCA release, the more elaborately orchestrated Til the Sun Turns Black, followed in 2006. During this period his compositions also appeared in multiple American television series, among them ER, Bones, and One Tree Hill. Gossip in the Grain, again produced by Johns, surfaced in 2008 and became his strongest commercial showing up to that point, entering the U.S. album chart at number three while supplying additional material later featured on television.

LaMontagne’s fourth studio album, God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise, emerged in 2012. Recorded without Ethan Johns, the sessions took place at his own home studio, credited to LaMontagne and his supporting group the Pariah Dogs—bassist Jennifer Condos, guitarist Eric Heywood, and drummer Jay Bellerose—and rose to number three on the Billboard 200, securing his first Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys produced and engineered Supernova, released in April 2014; the album earned strong reviews, topped Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart, and again reached number three on the Billboard 200. The following May, Sawyer Fredericks, winner of season eight of NBC’s The Voice, recorded an early LaMontagne composition, “Please,” which became a streaming success.

Signaling an intended shift in approach to a circle of supporters, LaMontagne enlisted My Morning Jacket’s Jim James for 2016’s Ouroboros. Conceived for continuous listening, the record foregrounded blues guitar within a dense psychedelic framework constructed from vintage instruments and climbed to number 13 on the Billboard 200 while attaining a career-best position of number two on the alternative chart. Blending those psychedelic leanings with his established Americana foundation, the self-produced Part of the Light appeared in 2018 and reached the Top 40. For his eighth album, Monovision, he again worked solo; issued in mid-2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the set was written, produced, engineered, and performed entirely by LaMontagne and peaked at number 163 on the Billboard 200.

In August 2023 he issued the non-album single “Broken Sky” backed with “It Takes Me Back,” the latter featuring My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel on pedal steel guitar. The buoyant, Motown-inflected “Step Into Your Power” followed in June 2024, two months prior to the release of his ninth studio album, Long Way Home.