NASHVILLE, TENN. (AP) - Every record label has people who decide what’s a hit and what isn’t, and those people at RCA had a very specific reaction when Ray LaMontagne turned in his latest album, “God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise.”
“They weren’t happy at all,” LaMontagne said. “But I was. And so at that point, it’s really up to you as an artist to draw a line in the sand. You either want to jump through hoops for some guy in a suit at a record label until they’re happy or you just have to believe in yourself and what you’ve done.”
LaMontagne was immovable and his fourth album came out just as he and a close group of friends dubbed The Pariah Dogs recorded it at LaMontagne’s western Massachusetts home. He’s been rewarded with two Grammy nominations, including one in the prestigious song of the year category for “Beg Steal or Borrow,” a huge boost for a singer whose audience is outside the mainstream.
LaMontagne acknowledges “a certain amount of pleasure” at the unexpected pat on the back he got from the industry. His friends are more demonstrative.
“It’s great to watch it happen now, to prove them wrong,” said Jay Bellerose, drummer on the “God Willin’” sessions. “That’s always enjoyable.”
LaMontagne’s gotten negative vibes from the suits before, so the initial reaction wasn’t unexpected. But it stung all the more because he felt the 10 songs on “God Willin’” constituted his best work.
In a sense, he’d taken a chance by deciding to end his very successful partnership with producer Ethan Johns and take on that role himself. They produced three albums together that defied expectations and lifted LaMontagne’s gritty, soulful tenor above the crowd. But over the years things about the process started to bother him _ things like the slow pace of recording, out-of-sync schedules _ and he found himself thinking about how he might do things differently.
“At a certain point I guess I just thought, `I don’t want to do this anymore,’” LaMontagne said. “I couldn’t stand the thought of so much money being spent, my money. When you get down to it, it’s my money that’s being spent. It just seemed needless. There were lots of little negotiations I could do without. That’s really what made the difference.”
At the same time he had assembled a touring band that included some of the most sought-after players in the business _ Bellerose, bassist Jennifer Condos and guitarists Eric Heyward and Greg Liesz. They became close over the years and he wished he could find a way to repeat the sound they made on the road on his next record. And he wanted to do it at his 200-year-old colonial farmhouse.
LaMontagne hired Grammy-winning engineer Ryan Freeland, who flew in his gear from California, and started to create stories of his own. Most of the recording was completed in just five days and the group spent the rest of the two-week session making minor tweaks to the album and enjoying rural New England.
“You can get the best musicians in the room, but if you don’t know what to do with them and how to steer the whole ship, it’s pointless,” said Bellerose, a member of T Bone Burnett’s elite crew of session favorites. “You’ll waste a lot of time and money. He knew exactly what he was working with _ that’s the mark of a great producer.”
“God Willin’” covers a lot of ground, from the funky get-back attitude of “Repo Man” to the gentle strum of “Like Rock and Roll & Radio” and the bluesy stomp of “Devil in the Jukebox.” “Beg Steal or Borrow” evokes “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “After the Gold Rush” era Neil Young.
LaMontagne thought it was easily the best thing he’d done and knew there were four or five songs on the record that would resonate with his fans. The A&R guys at RCA didn’t agree.
“So they asked me to please _ very politely, please _ go back in the studio and do something else. Which to me was, well, to say insulting,” LaMontagne said.
He resolved to stand his ground.
“And what’s the worst that can happen,” LaMontagne said. “Are they gonna drop you? Not to sound cocky, but I dare `em.”
Fans, it turns out, agreed with LaMontagne. “God Willin’” was an unexpected hit, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 and reaching No. 1 on the folk albums and digital albums lists. It’s in its 21st week on the chart and LaMontagne’s breakthrough debut album, “Trouble,” has entered the Top 200 at No. 171 last week because of the attention from the Grammy nomination.
So far, “God Willin’” has sold about half the copies of 2004’s “Trouble,” which has moved more than 581,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. LaMontagne has sold more than 1.3 million albums so far.
“Beg Steal or Borrow” was a radio success as well, reaching No. 1 on the AAA airplay list. The song will compete with Cee Lo Green’s “(Expletive) You,” Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now,” Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me,” and “Love the Way You Lie,” by Eminem featuring Rihanna. LaMontagne is also up for best contemporary folk album.
Tom Corson, executive vice president and general manager of the RCA Music Group, praised the album and its success, while acknowledging the initial disagreement over its potential.
“There is often a creative exchange between an artist and label executives,” Corson told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “We are thrilled with `God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise.’ The album’s accolades and successes speak for itself, and are well deserved and overdue for an artist as accomplished as Ray.”
LaMontagne says he will attend Sunday’s ceremony and is pleased by the notice the album has received. But he never envisioned himself as a Grammy nominee.
“It’s like having your name put in for prom king or something without you knowing it,” LaMontagne joked.
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