Early life
LaMontagne was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1973, one of six children raised by his mother. In his early teens he lived in Morgan, Utah, and was more interested in drawing images of Dungeons & Dragons than in his school work. After graduating from high school, LaMontagne moved to Lewiston, Maine, and found work in a shoe factory. LaMontagne also spent a significant amount of time in Wilton, Maine. Other sources state that by his teen years he was living in Maine, spending time in Turner and Buckfield.
Style
LaMontagne has a unique vocal style which he says is created by singing through his gut instead of through his nose. He cites Stephen Stills, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko as strong musical influences while critics have compared LaMontagne's music to that of The Band, Van Morrison, Nick Drake, and Tim Buckley.[failed verification] A Rolling Stone review of his album Supernova referred to his voice as an "impeccably weathered tenor croon" and his phrasing as "marble-mouthed."
Awards
For his debut album, LaMontagne won four awards, including three Boston Music Awards (Best Male Singer-Songwriter, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year) and an XM Nation Music Award for Acoustic Rock Artist of the Year. LaMontagne has received a nomination from the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards for Best New Touring Artist, the BRIT Awards for International Breakthrough Act, the MOJO Awards for Best New Act, and was given the title of Best Voice in 2006 by Esquire.
In 2011, Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs received two Grammy Award nominations, and they were awarded the Grammy for the Best Contemporary Folk Album for God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise.
Controversy
On July 23, 2014, during a show at the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan, LaMontagne interrupted a song and walked off stage as a result of two fans talking during his concert, after having previously asked the audience to quiet down. The incident included yelling profanity at the couple before walking off stage. Once the couple was escorted away LaMontagne continued the concert.
On September 20, 2016, LaMontagne announced that he was canceling a September 22 show at the Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas at Austin, due to Texas's recently implemented campus carry law.
Personal life
In 2009, LaMontagne paid $1.05 million for a 103-acre farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the former residence of U.S. Ambassador William C. Bullitt, where he lives with his wife, Sarah Sousa, and their two children in the farmhouse built in 1830. Sousa is a published poet via Red Mountain Press and their sons are budding artists. He refers to himself as a "very private person" and rarely gives interviews.
Empty
Ray LaMontagne Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughing
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell
In my disasters
Through grass grown tall
And brown and still
It's hard somehow
To let go of my pain
On past the busted back
Of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field
Collecting rain
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
And of these cut throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings
I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusty
Dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers
From your hair
And kiss me
With that country mouth
So plain
Outside the rain is tapping
On the leaves
To me it sounds like
They're applauding us
The quiet love
We've made
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Well I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest
Said do your best
To destroy me
See I've been to hell and back
So many times
I must admit
You kinda bore me
There's a lot of things
That can kill a man
There's a lot of ways
To die
Yes, and some already did
And walk beside me
There's a lot of things
I don't understand
Why so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels
The fire inside me
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Ray LaMontagne's song "Empty" is a haunting and introspective exploration of loneliness, pain, and the search for connection. The opening verse sets the scene, describing a woman walking through a garden with a lighthearted ease that the singer feels is out of reach. The second verse reveals the singer's own struggles with seeing the good in his life and instead dwelling on his "disasters." It is in the third verse that we see the depth of his pain as he wanders through a field filled with broken down cars, trying to reconcile himself to the emptiness he feels inside.
The fourth verse is a plea for connection, with the singer speaking to an unknown love interest and asking her to kiss him with her "country mouth." The fifth verse takes a turn toward despair once again, with the sound of rain outside feeling like applause for the quiet love the singer longs for. The final verse is a reckoning with the singer's own demons, the ones that have brought him to the edge of despair so many times before.
Line by Line Meaning
She lifts her skirt up to her knees
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughing
She is carefree and full of life, walking barefoot in the garden, enjoying the sunshine and laughing freely.
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell
In my disasters
Instead of being grateful for what he has, the singer focuses on his problems, which causes him to be unhappy.
I walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall
And brown and still
It's hard somehow
To let go of my pain
The singer is taking a walk and finds it difficult to let go of his emotional pain which he carries with him everywhere he goes.
On past the busted back
Of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field
Collecting rain
The artist walks past an old and rusty car which has been left to collect rain in a field.
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
The artist is struggling with feelings of emptiness and loneliness, and wonders if he will always feel this way.
And of these cut throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings
I have grown weary
The singer has grown tired of the harsh, bleak world around him, and finds himself longing for something better.
If through my cracked and dusty
Dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
The singer wonders if anyone would listen to him if he opened up and spoke honestly about his pain and struggles.
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers
From your hair
And kiss me
With that country mouth
So plain
The artist asks the woman he loves to come to him, let her hair down and kiss him, with all the simplicity and honesty of their rural roots.
Outside the rain is tapping
On the leaves
To me it sounds like
They're applauding us
The quiet love
We've made
The artist hears the sound of rain as a beautiful accompaniment to the love between himself and his partner, as if it is affirming and celebrating their relationship.
Well I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest
Said do your best
To destroy me
The artist faced his inner demons and hostile forces head on, refusing to be defeated by them.
See I've been to hell and back
So many times
I must admit
You kinda bore me
After facing so many hardships, the singer has become jaded and finds it hard to be moved by anything anymore.
There's a lot of things
That can kill a man
There's a lot of ways
To die
Yes, and some already did
And walk beside me
The artist is surrounded by the ghosts of people who have died and speaks about how many ways there are to die and how every person has his own way.
There's a lot of things
I don't understand
Why so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels
The fire inside me
The singer is struggling to understand why so many people lie, and how it is his own hidden pain that motivates him to keep fighting and moving forward.
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
The song ends with the same question it began with, as the singer continues to struggle with his feelings of emptiness and isolation.
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Written by: Ray Lamontagne
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@asmis8299
She lifts her skirt up to her knees
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughing
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell
In my disasters
I walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall
And brown and still
It's hard somehow
To let go of my pain
On past the busted back
Of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field
Collecting rain
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
And of these cut throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings
I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusty
Dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers
From your hair
And kiss me
With that country mouth
So plain
Outside the rain is tapping
On the leaves
To me it sounds like
They're applauding us
The quiet love
We've made
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
Well I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest
Said do your best
To destroy me
See I've been to hell and back
So many times
I must admit
You kinda bore me
There's a lot of things
That can kill a man
There's a lot of ways
To die
Yes, and some already did
And walk beside me
There's a lot of things
I don't understand
Why so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels
The fire inside me
Will I always feel this way
So empty
So estranged?
@betsysstuff9763
For All the Fondness of a Frozen Lake
Happenstance, an Unable Turn
Eyes wide looking far into the blanket fog into the horizon
Flight path emblazoned with the glow of a warming dawn
Sharpened mind, tuned to a welcoming season of love
Unable to turn upon the words of impending doom
Iced up lake, a welcoming home
Silent nights for the one wish groom
A one room cabin as comforting tomb
Hoping for the numbness to last for twenty seasons of lonesome moons
A promise made, a promise in keeping, never too soon
A secret that had long been leaked, a twenty years song
Alas, alas, comes that day
When all that has long been known and none too soon
The dense air sinks and the pulse too and soon
Frigid bones sinking deep below the frozen tomb
A heart, a mind, warmth of blood, had risen into the ethers, not long beneath that sinking moon.
A blanket of white ... thick sheets of ice, a lover's tomb
@kenyaL93
She lifts her skirt up to her knees
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughin'
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell in my disasters
I walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall and brown and still
It's hard somehow to let go of my pain
On past the busted back of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field collecting rain
Will I always feel this way?
So empty, so estranged?
Of these cut-throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusty dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers from your hair
And kiss me with that country mouth so plain
Outside the rain is tapping on the leaves
To me, it sounds like they're applauding us
The quiet love we've made
Will I always feel this way?
So empty, so estranged?
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest, said, "Do your best to destroy me"
See, I've been to hell and back so many times
I must admit you kinda bore me
There's a lot of things that can kill a man
There's a lot of ways to die
Yes, and some already did and walk beside me
There's a lot of things I don't understand
But so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels the fire inside me
Will I always feel this way?
So empty, so estranged?
@weedwerdo
lyrics:
She lifts her skirt up to her knees
Walks through the garden rows
With her bare feet laughin'
I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell in my disasters
I walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall and brown and still
It's hard somehow to let go of my pain
On past the busted back of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field collecting rain
Will I always feel this way?
So empty, so estranged?
Of these cut-throat busted sunsets
These cold and damp white mornings I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusty dime store lips
I spoke these words out loud
Would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers from your hair
And kiss me with that country mouth so plain
Outside the rain is tapping on the leaves
To me, it sounds like they're applauding us
The quiet love we've made
Will I always feel this way?
So empty, so estranged?
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
Lay bare my chest, said, "Do your best to destroy me"
See, I've been to hell and back so many times
I must admit you kinda bore me
There's a lot of things that can kill a man
There's a lot of ways to die
Yes, and some already did and walk beside me
There's a lot of things I don't understand
But so many people lie
It's the hurt I hide that fuels the fire inside me
Will I always feel this way?
So empty, so estranged?
@Rosencraft
미래의 골동품 가게보고 왔습니다~
현오는 좋은 노래를 듣고 있었구나
@user-pg4ie3hl5t
앗.저도...
찾아서 들어야만 한다고.. 저뿐만이 아니었어요^^
@user-kv5xb1hy2u
앗 들켰고ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
@supermegatastic48
I heard this song on the radio once. I fell in love with it instantly. Forgetting to write down the name of the song, I soon forgot the name. After hours of searching for the song (knowing it was sung by someone named either ray, rea, or rae) I just found it. Funny enough, I was watching family guy, and Peter was at a Ray Lamontagne concert. Knowing the name sound familiar I looked him up. First search result: Empty, by Ray Lamontange. I clicked on the video, and immediately recognized it as the song I’ve been looking for for years. I’m so happy rn.
@hotrod8486
happens to the best of us
@djsingleton5860
If it matters it will search your soul out.
@intothesilence4927
There are women who will give their soul for this song and a bottle of wine. But it must be done in the dark of night and early morning before dawn.
@petercalkins245
What's needed finally comes to the seeker.
@robertcronin6603
@@petercalkins245 🔥
@meghanbelleodonnell262
this is my favorite song in the whole world