Ray LaMontagne is an American singer-songwriter from Nashua, New Hampshire, born in 1973. He records in contemporary folk, folk, folk rock, indie folk and singer-songwriter styles, and is associated with Big Deal Music. He has also been linked with Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs and Blue Monday.

Career

LaMontagne releases nine studio albums: Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain, God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise, Supernova, Ouroboros, Part of the Light, Monovision and Long Way Home. He begins making music after hearing an album by Stephen Stills, and he names Stephen Stills, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko among his key influences.

He is known for a distinctive vocal style, which he says comes from singing through his gut rather than his nose. Critics compare his work to Otis Redding, The Band, Van Morrison, Nick Drake and Tim Buckley.

Early life

Born Raymond Charles Jack LaMontagne, he grows up in New Hampshire as one of six children raised by his mother. In his early teens he lives in Morgan, Utah, and spends more time drawing Dungeons & Dragons images than doing schoolwork. After finishing high school, he moves to Lewiston, Maine, and works in a shoe factory. He also spends a significant amount of time in Wilton, Maine, and other accounts place him in Turner and Buckfield during his teen years.

Awards

For his debut album, LaMontagne wins three Boston Music Awards for Best Male Singer-Songwriter, Album of the Year and Song of the Year, along with an XM Nation Music Award for Acoustic Rock Artist of the Year. He is nominated for Best New Touring Artist at the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards, International Breakthrough Act at the BRIT Awards and Best New Act at the MOJO Awards. In 2006, Esquire names him Best Voice.

In 2011, Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs receive two Grammy nominations and win the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise.

Personal life

He lives with his wife, Sarah Sousa, and their two children in a farmhouse built in 1830 on a 103-acre farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts, which he buys in 2009. He describes himself as a very private person and rarely gives interviews. Sousa is a published poet through Red Mountain Press, and their sons are budding artists.

Controversy

During a 2014 concert at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he stops a song, argues with two audience members talking during the show and leaves the stage before later continuing the concert after they are removed. In 2016, he cancels a show at Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas at Austin because of Texas's campus carry law.