(3104) Ben Folds / Ray LaMontagne

From the ACL Taping Program on May 11, 2005:

The “smarty-pants pop” (Spin) of the Ben Folds Five brought the band platinum-plus selling records in the ’90s and the band’s song “Brick” has become a signature tune of the decade. But with the start of the new millennium, Ben Folds parted ways with the Five for a solo career.

After recording Rocking the Suburbs and several EPs on his own, Folds returned to working with a band for the first time since the Ben Folds Five disbanded in 2000. For his newest release, Songs for Silverman, Folds had the help of bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Lindsay Jamieson during his Nashville recording sessions. “I wanted to make my ‘grow a beard, lock yourself in the studio, and play for a couple of weeks album,’” Folds said. “Bass, piano and drums has always been most natural for me. I have tapes back to when I was 12 years old that are piano, bass and drums.”

The beard may not have worked out, but the trio came out of the studio with an 11-song epic of straightforward live-in-the-studio sound and emotional tunes. “Some records really capture a moment in time,” Folds said. “This album is about being spiritually tight, not necessarily musically tight.”

Featuring songs about Folds’ daughter, politics and a tribute to his friend singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, Songs For Silverman has been praised by critics as Folds’ most mature work to date. “With the heartfelt, elaborately crafted Songs for Silverman, the 38-year-old Folds has found his footing as a mature artist. ... Folds never loses track of his pop hooks, even when he's deploying tricky time signatures and Steely Dan-worthy chord progressions,” wrote RollingStone.com.

Link to Ben Folds' artist page.

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From the ACL Taping Program on July 23, 2005:

Rolling Stone called Ray LaMontagne “the backwoods Van Morrison” when the magazine placed him on their 2004 Hot List. His 2004 Austin City Limits Music Festival performance was on several “best of the fest” lists and  his debut release, Trouble, has taken him from cult following to mainstream.

After hearing a Stephen Stills song when his radio alarm clock went off at 4 a.m., LaMontagne quit his job at a shoe factory to pursue a career in music. “I knew I wanted to sing, which was really crazy, because I never even talked to anybody,” he said. “I just had this feeling that it was somewhere inside me, and I had to find it and let it out.”

In the summer of 1999, LaMontagne recorded his first demo. This collection of 10 songs started gaining attention from music lovers and soon found its way into the hands of a music publishing company. Chrysalis Music Publishing decided his songs were so unique that it warranted them making a record themselves and finding a label after the album was finished. LaMontagne and producer Ethan Johns worked for two intense weeks to create, Trouble, which was released by RCA in September 2004.

The CD has received widespread critical acclaim. Esquire wrote “His songs are grand mansions built on crumbling foundations, haunting tunes that document the prosperity for real love and deep depression to tap the same tear duct.” Acoustic Guitar World wrote LaMontagne can “take a relatively simple song and make it soar, and he does that time and again.”

Link to Ray LaMontagne's artist page.

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