2025 marks 20 years since Ray LaMontagne released his debut album “Trouble”, and he’s marked that fact with not just a remastered version of it on vinyl for the first time, but also a tour playing the complete album. The celebratory run is taking place in the USA this year, but thankfully, he’s also bringing it across the Atlantic to UK shores in 2026, and in anticipation of this, I decided to highlight a wonderful performance of a song from that very album.
It feels easy to overlook ‘Shelter’ on an album as strong as “Trouble”, especially when it directly proceeds one hell of an album opener in the title track, but this performance, first broadcast on the 13th April 2007 on BBC Four as part of their much missed Sessions series, has the kind of soul and depth you can only ever really get in a live setting. Every shred of pain is felt when LaMontagne remembers the sad end of a relationship, but equally, there is a kind of hope that shines through that the couple might get out of it with some part of their hearts intact because of the love they will always share.
It’s as beautiful as it is tragic, and it’s just what he does best.
