Ray Lamontagne last night

If you don't know him, you should. His breathy and soulful voice fills my arms with goosebumps as I lean over the balcony rail. I am 20 feet above him, in box 2 at Strathmore Music center, tapping my hand in triplets to his music. As we look down on to the stage, we are wooed by the melancholy of the slide guitar, and the rhythmic tapping of Ray's right foot.

The whole center of his set list was all new music from the just-released album "Gossip in the Grain", which seems more folkish and rooted than his other two albums.

A person screams "Would you like us to stand up Ray" and he says "Of course, do whatever you'd like, you're just in time to stand up for a ballad". And that, in essence, is Ray.