According to legend, LaMontagne was working in a shoeshop in Maine when he heard a Stephen Stills song and subsequently decided to quit his job and take up the life of a musician, with Stills as his hero. Well, at least in terms of singing ability, LaMontagne's already topped his master, as LaMontagne's rugged tenor ranks with the best pop voices of his generation. It's a classic blue-eyed soul voice, but more ragged than, say, Darryl Hall's or Chris Robinson's (in Robinson's earlier days). It's most akin to the singing of prime Rod Stewart and prime Bob Segar, with the breathiness and wildness of a prime Van Morrison. He's Gregg Allman with better range and more expression.
"Trouble"--made internationally famous when American Idol winner Taylor Hicks covered it during his stint on the contest--is structured like a typical singer-songwriter record, and the arrangement calls for the usual, requisite acoustic guitar strumming and jazz-lite drumming. What makes the record distinctive is LaMontagne's wonderful voice and his phrasing, which takes little from the singer-songwriters; instead, LaMontagne's stylings come from blues, soul, and gospel: the humming, the pauses, and the repetition--all seem impromptu, to come from the depth of feeling in his soul...and all almost assuredly derive from pre-meditation, deliberately concocted. After all, this was recorded in the studio. Does this seeming affectation make the record insincere? Nope. It just means that Ray LaMontagne's a recording artist that knows exactly what he's doing. A record this deliberately (well) crafted signals that LaMontagne's troubles may soon end, for surely his star is soon to shine.
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