Ray Lamontagne - Till The Sun Turns Black

I hope the sun doesn’t go black before LaMontagne finishes creating awesome stripped down, bare-boned beautiful music because if it does, we’ll be the worse for it. For one thing, we’ll be history. The sun’s important. Yes, that, but we’ll also be missing LaMontagne’s rootsy, smoky, subdued, yet powerful, voice and those songs he and collaborator Ethan Johns have created. Using quiet guitars, warm strings, and other folksy instruments, his album is superb in most every way. Songs like “Barfly,” “Can I Stay,” and “You Can Bring Me Flowers,” stick with you long after the tune has lilted away. Reminiscent of Iron & Wine, with splashes of Marc Cohn and Van Morrison, Lamontagne isn’t one of the rash of folk singers who are born in coffee shops reciting self-obsessed poetry while strumming a guitar. No, he’s a talent, a true honestly good talent, and his star, like the sun, will only get brighter after listeners tune in to this album. [www.raylamontagne.com]