God Willin' And The Creek Don't Rise

LaMontagne gathers a band and tries a producer’s role

Raymond Charles (or simply, Ray) LaMontagne is quite an experienced folk-musician who was born in the USA, yet has become especially popular in the Great Britain. Before he took a guitar and began performing the American national music, Ray used to work at a shoe factory. That’s so nice he decided to enter such changes in his life. LaMontagne’s first three albums were commercially fertile and sold particularly well not in the singer’s motherland, but in the UK. In 2010, Ray initiated a transformation of his own musical style. To record a new studio album, the musician gathered a band under the title The Pariah Dogs. The outfit’s members are skilful people who used to play in reputed ensembles (The Pretenders, Wilco) and with reputed performers (Robert Plant, Bruce Springsteen, and Ryan Adams). Besides, LaMontagne, for the first time in his life, took up personal producing of his studio work. The recording session took place right at Ray’s place in Massachusetts. This CD was eventually given quite a difficult name to remember, God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise.

Such simple and sweet folk

Ray LaMontagne’s fresh studio effort sounds rather like a concert album. Acting like a recording process manager, Ray left intact all the minor flaws the musicians made during the session. You can hear the fingers sliding down the strings as the palm goes from bar to bar; you can hear the drummer and the bassist lose the beat from time to time. Looks like this company wanted to show you that this album is a product of collective labor, not a result of one man’s efforts to make a perfect system of music elements on a personal computer. Almost all the tracks are samples of sweet folk-rock with the leading part surrendered to guitar occasionally supported by banjo. The only exception is the first song, Repo Man. This is quite a rough track with pretty hard rock-music guitar riff and harsh lyrics, which does not look like LaMontagne at all. However, the most attractive pieces here are those where Ray settles down on the soft side and starts sharing his light sadness. In New York’s Killing Me, he admits that the big city life is not for him. Old Before Your Time unfolds Ray’s fear to waste his time on the things he does not need. Beg Steal Or Borrow is the single that you can’t help liking and memorizing just at once. Like any other good country song, this one blows your mind with simple melody and lyrics.

Music for the people

Arguably, God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise is LaMontagne’s most untraditional album, and the most American album the singer has ever produced. This effort is infiltrated with rural spirit. It breezes the existence far away from a big city. That is why the album touches upon the problems which are very familiar to a middle class person. These songs embrace feelings of longing for home, loneliness, fear of changes. In the meantime, the lyrics are accompanied by the truly folk instruments: acoustic guitar and banjo. Bass and drums here are simply used to build rhythms. They are not interesting as they are and not mentioned to capture your attention. God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise proves to be a very cozy, home-like album. It shapes a feeling that Ray invited you to have a couple of beers. You made yourself comfortable on the porch and look forward to having a pleasant and frank talk. LaMontagne’s voice is his strongest side. This raspy kind voice guarantees a friendly chat because you can but trust a man with such a voice. As a result, LaMontagne succeeded wit his experiment. Ray turns out to be a nice producer and a good organizer who managed to gather a group of talented men for the skilful execution of an interesting idea.