Michael Fremer

Well this is embarrassing: I've played often and enjoyed this excellent sounding reissue featuring L.A. based anglophile singer/songwriter Emitt Rhodes in preparation for this write-up but the record has gotten lost here somewhere.

In an indie-rock era saturated with smirky, slacker irony, the roots-rocker Ray La Montagne comes across as downright solemn. He and his group execute cleanly and almost reverentially, funk, blues, jazz and country, which La Montagne sings in a honey coated gruff voice that veers between Joe Cocker and Tim Hardin. The man is sincere and like Tim Hardin, he knows how to move three chord rounds. 

You could argue the advisability of naming a sophomore effort Everybody Digs Bill Evans but today it’s clear that everybody in fact does, or still does depending on your feelings about that second album’s title.

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks A/K/A Taj Mahal grew up in Harlem, spent time as a teenager on a Massachusetts dairy farm, attended U of M, gigged around and finally headed west and built a musical career first in Los Angeles and later in the Bay area. The life influences come through in his music: a mix of urban and country blues mixed with world music.