I am writing this post just after finding out the news of the century..are you ready for it?  Ray LaMontagne and David Gray are coming to Boston this summer to play at the Fleet Boston Pavillion!  B E S T  N E W S  E V E R!  I now have Ray ADD and won’t be able to think of much else until August (I am posting this now as I should be gymming it).  Now is a better time than any to get you guys acquainted with my obsession, so listen up!

1) I have seen Ray 2 times in concert and he is so mesmerizing. His voice is soulful and so soft (he is a shy guy) that the entire audience listens in complete silence.  The most current time I saw him, last October, it was an acoustic set and he played songs off his newest album Gossip in the Grain and his older albums, Trouble and Til the Sun Turns Black, in the dark .  He even covered some Bob Dylan songs!  He joked a lot with the audience and talked about how when he dies he wants to go to Monkey Heaven and eat bananas and swing from trees.  This interaction is so out of his character, it was great to see him open up a little!

(My future wedding song <3,the lyrics give me the chills)

2) He lived in Lewiston, Maine and worked in a local shoe factory until one morning he woke up and heard a Stephen Stills song and quit his job to become a musician.  I went to college up there and have found videos of him playing in small college auditoriums around Portland.  I didn’t find him until a few years after I moved back to MA which bums me out because I wish I would’ve seem him play in such an intimate setting and before he was famous.

3) He is the perfect 5 o’clock music.  I listen to his songs when I have those emotional days and just want to cry (come on ladies, we all have those days) as well as days I am cooking or cleaning, or days that I have a long drive, or days that I have a short drive.  Basically, every day I breathe is a good Ray Day.  His 3 cd’s are in my car cd player at all times (disks 1,3, and 4) and he is a beep beep on my Sirius radio.  You get the point right?

4) Now, about the music and lyrics.  He is categorized as folk rock and I love all his cds (and can listen to each all the way through).  You would be surprised where you hear his songs: a commercial, One Tree Hill, The Devil Wears Prada, Grey’s Anatomy, etc.  Here are a few of my all time favorite songs (in order of awesomeness):

• Jolene
• You Are the Best Thing (acoustic)
• Empty
• Can I Stay
• Burn

Are you already a fan/have you seen him live? If so, what do you love about Ray? No? Google him and check out some songs and performaces, then go out and buy all his cds!  When that isn’t enough (and it won’t be), get tickets to his show.  I’ll see you there!