17 AUGUST 2010
| CLICK HERE FOR SIREN RECORD'S
LISTINGS OF NEW, USED & COLLECTIBLE
VINYL FOR SALE.
NEW STUFF ADDED DAILY!
SHIPPED RIGHT TO
YOUR DOOR!!
|
OUT TODAY! TUESDAY 8/17!
| 
Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs
God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise
CD / LP
By Patrick Flanary glidemagazine.com
August 16, 2010
While "Trouble" celebrated being saved by a woman, Ray LaMontagne's God Willin' kicks
that no good lyin' lady to the curb. But it doesn't take long for this
pariah dog to beg her back, let her go again, then finally stroll on
toward the sunset, head held high.
This journey of rejection and
regret begins with "Repo Man," a rolling acoustic groove embellished
with the ominous snake rattle of a tambourine. When LaMontagne's
gravel-scrubbed vocals enter the albumwell past the one-minute mark,
we're transported to what feels like a familiar back-porch hootenanny,
whiskey at the ready. "What makes you think I'm gonna take you back? I
ain't your repo man," Ray snarls. What's unfamiliar is his
confrontational tone, which softens when LaMontagne ultimately points the finger at himself.
God Willin' represents
the most manic mood swing of LaMontagne's catalog, which may be a
reflection of his debut as producer. Neither matters, as one listen to God Willin'
only proves he'll likely outliveand outdo most of his peers. Still,
critics have gotten so caught up in comparing the artist to the likes
of Levon Helm and Stephen Stills--both 30 years his senior--that they
somehow manage to miss RayLaMontagne altogether.
His five-member backup group, which includes Son Volt guitarist Eric Heywood, spent two weeks recording God Willin'
at the band leader's Massachusetts home. Greg Leisz's pedal steel
guitar work compliments drummer Jay Bellerose's tom walloping, which
echoes like the sluggish pound of a lonely heartbeat on the album's
title track. Rootsier rock structures have replaced the soulful gusto
from past Ray records, but he hasn't lost his knack for weaving in
those soulful hooks on songs like "Beg Steal or Borrow." He pleads for
mercy on "For the Summer," and embraces his limitations on the banjo
ballad "Old Before Your Time" ("What's the use of stacking on every
failure another stone/Til you find you spent your whole life building
walls," he sings).
God Willin' stands as rock music's first Americana document of the decade. And while not as engaging as 2008's Gossip in the Grain, this fourth LaMontagne effort further promises longevity, a dog in the fight for a long time to come.
|
OUT TODAY! TUESDAY 8/17!
| 
DAVID GRAY
Foundling
CD
By Jerry Mitchell, Special for USA TODAY David Gray must be one of the hardest-working singer/songwriters on the planet these days. His tour for last fall's Draw the Line album hasn't ended, and on Tuesday he's releasing a double disc of new material titled Foundling.
The 42-year-old Brit, who has sold more than 12
million albums worldwide, first burst into American consciousness a
decade ago with fourth album White Ladder.
Foundling is the second release from what Gray calls "a very fertile recording session" that gave birth to Draw.
After he and the band finished ripping through a
rocker in the studio, "I'd start to play something quietly, and it
sounded like a real relief."
Once the session ended, he gathered up all the
bare-bones songs he'd written and discovered less was more. "These are
some of the most dynamic recordings I've ever done," he says.
A Moment Changes Everything is his most infectious single since 2000's Babylon:
"The summer sky is blushing pink/The heart is running out of sync/Could
this just be the day, I think/When anything is possible."
But promises of possibility often clash with reality. In Holding On, he talks of grabbing hold of the world, even as it all slips away: "We are just passing ghosts, honey/Vapors of joy and hurt."
Gray remains an underrated writer of love songs,
perhaps because he never sugarcoats his feelings. "Love is dramatically
misrepresented 95% of the time in our culture, so I want to paint it as
I feel it," he says. "I cry it from the rooftops."
In We Could Fall in Love Again Tonight,
he aches about love and limbo: "What kind of existence?/To want you so
much/And only feel the distance/Each time when we touch."
Married for 17 years, Gray says he wishes he
"could fall in love again, but it's hard to make that happen. You do
your best getting the flame to flicker back to life."
Through his music and his muse, he's found revival.
"Pledging yourself to music and to life itself
is transformative," he says. "You have to die, and you're reborn.
There's a constant shedding of self to find self."
In so doing, he says, you leave yourself naked and open to carping by critics - something he says he never reads.
He's finishing his U.S. tour by teaming with soulful singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne. On Aug. 22, the pair will perform in Nashville, still reeling from the May flood, and donate a portion of their proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.
At some point after Gray's tour ends this year, he's planning a follow-up tour - this time to show off music from Foundling.
"I want to make it very quiet and acoustic," he
says. "We'll use cellos and a real piano. It will be half the volume of
a rock show."
He still enjoys performing but is happy to get home to his wife and two young children.
Being a father "deepens your relationship with
your world," he says. "Anybody who has been parent knows that having a
child includes a certain amount of compromise and unbelievable
enchantment. It's had a profound effect on me as a person."
Extensive touring comes at a price, he says, but "I'm trying to achieve some kind of unachievable balance."
Mitchell reports for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
|
| CLICK HERE FOR SIREN RECORD'S
LISTINGS OF NEW, USED & COLLECTIBLE
VINYL FOR SALE.
NEW STUFF ADDED DAILY!
SHIPPED RIGHT TO
YOUR DOOR!!
|
|
SIREN RECORDS
25 East State Street
Doylestown PA 18901
(215)348-2323
www.sirenrecords.com
Siren Facebook
Siren Myspace
Siren Twitter
|
MORE
NEW
RELEASES:
TAKING BACK SUNDAY
Live From Orensanz
CD
BRIAN WILSON
Reimagines Gershwin
CD
IRON MAIDEN
The Final Frontier
deluxe CD
NOFX
The Longest EP
CD
BORIS & IAN ASTBURY
BXI
CD
JOHN MELLENCAMP
No Better Than This
CD
|
|
SIREN ELECTRIC RECORDS 
New Release Update
