Ray LaMontagne - Trouble 20th Anniversary Tour

The Read

Trouble was the record that established the whole LaMontagne proposition: a rasp somewhere between soul singer and folk hermit, arrangements that stay out of the way, and a reluctance to explain himself between songs. He has spent the twenty years since wandering into psychedelia and back out of it, which makes returning to this material a real decision rather than a nostalgia default. Anniversary shows can go inert — a band playing a tracklist in order because the poster said so. The better version treats the sequence as a set of songs the singer has to re-inhabit rather than recite. The Ryman is the right room for that gamble. It is quiet enough that a half-whispered line reaches the back, and it punishes anyone coasting.

The Room

Ryman Auditorium

116 5th Ave N

Built in 1892 as a tabernacle by river captain Thomas Ryman, who was converted at a Sam Jones revival — little did he know it would become the church of American roots music.