06.14.2011 - Ray LaMontagne @ The Lawn at White River State Park
June 23, 2011
The Lawn at White River State Park
Indianapolis, IN
We had the opportunity to catch two of our favorite artists as they stopped in Indianapolis to play a sold-out show at White River State Park. Numerous times we have seen Brandi Carlile and Ray LaMontagne play separately, but we could not miss an opportunity to see two of the best singer-songwriters of our generation play on the same bill.
The show opened up with The Secret Sisters, who we previously saw open up for Amos Lee in the spring. They are about to go back into the studio to record a new album, and introduced us to a few of their new songs to be featured on that album. Laura and Lydia Rogers, who hail from Muscle Shoals, Alabama are two girls raised on classic country music who appreciate the songs of early George Jones and certainly Alabama’s own Hank Williams. There is a timelessness to their voices that evokes the feeling of sitting on your front porch on a summer evening, sipping lemonade. Their harmonies are pitch perfect and bring a refreshing return to a deeper side of country music that avoids the gimmicks and just gives you country music in a very pure form. Pick up their self-titled album and you’ll instantly know why producers such as T-Bone Burnett were enlisted to coordinate their first project. One listen to songs such as “Tennessee Me,” “Why Baby Why,” and “House of Gold” will take you back to those simpler times. Keep these ladies on your radar…you won’t regret it.
Brandi Carlile and her band took the stage and opened up with “Again Today,” the final song from her breakout album The Story. It’s not often that we have seen Brandi open up with this tune, but we welcome it every time she makes this song the first in a set list. Brandi has done an amazing job building a fan base here in Indy, playing so many different venues at the many stops she has made here, and it was so obvious that fan base showed up in large numbers on this evening. Regardless, Brandi’s set served as a sort of Brandi 101 for those who were not familiar with her music. The band played “Dreams,” from the last studio project Give Up The Ghost. She made mention of the most recent release, a live album with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall. Next, Brandi played “What Can I Say” and “Throw It All Away,” which she told the crowd was Ray LaMontagne’s favorite song of hers.
Brandi then shared with us that she was raised on classic country music and could appreciate the songs that have what she calls “wonderful, terrible lyrics.” She did a short melody of songs like Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” and “I Don’t Wanna Play House,” and finished with David Frizzell’s “Gonna Hire a Wino.” Brandi told the crowd how she wanted to write such a song and finally did, then called her mother so she could have a listen. She expected her mother to laugh at the song, but her mom, being a classic country singer just gasped and said to her “Honey! I think that’s your hit!” So Brandi brought out The Secret Sisters to sing her hit, “Same Ol’ You.” The crowd responded so well to this and I know I love every time I hear Brandi tell this story. Brandi ended her set with “The Story,” and again revisited those classic country roots with a short intro of “Jackson” by Johnny and June Cash and launched into a victorious version of “Folsom Prison Blues.” No doubt, that for people who may not have heard of Brandi before this evening, they got a splendid crash course in her amazing musical talent.
Ray LaMontagne made his way to the stage and opened up his set with the soul-wrenching “Burn.” Afterwards, his band The Pariah Dogs joined him and went right into what I can only imagine is the most appropriate song for Ray to sing each night: “For the Summer.” If you’ve ever seen Ray LaMontagne live, you know that he is not your typical musical celebrity. He doesn’t care much for the spotlight or for useless banter and he seems to despise all of the regular stuff that comes with being a famous musician. He is not a man of many words, so we were shocked when he stepped up to the microphone and told the crowd to look behind them to see a magnificent moon rising. One advantage of Ray’s use of few words is that he plays a very packed set, consisting of around 18 songs and you know by how passionately he sings with such raw emotion that this man is a relief to the singer-songwriter/folk genre. He has great stories and emotions to convey in each song. The set continued with songs such as “Repo Man,” “Shelter,” “Big Yellow Moon,” and the Merle Haggard classic “Mama Tried,” featuring The Secret Sisters as backup vocals.
We have had the pleasure of seeing Ray play live a few times but there was something so special about this evening. We don’t know if it was because Ray seemed like he was in such high spirits or if we were just happy to not be sweating and dirty (this was our first show post Bonnaroo), but out of all the times we have seen Ray live, this was our favorite show. Everyone, Ray included, looked like they were having such an excellent time onstage. Ray even stepped up to the microphone again to talk about how excellent The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo album from 1968 was before going into a cover of “Blue Canadian Rockies.” It seemed like this was an album that Ray deeply connects with and perhaps influenced the most recent release God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise. Ray finished out the evening with several more songs, including “Trouble,” “Old Before Your Time,” and bringing the crowd to it’s feet with “Henry Nearly Killed Me.” He came back onstage to do “You Can Bring Me Flowers” with the Secret Sisters and finished with “Rock and Roll and Radio.” A Ray LaMontagne show is always a highlight for us, but we so genuinely enjoyed this evening of music by one of our favorite artists. Maybe it was that gorgeous moon that he mentioned earlier, but this was definitely an enchanting evening full of amazing musicians and wonderful songs.
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