Troubled troubadour

(Credit: Nathalie Voirin)

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Ray LaMontagne performed in front of a sold-out crowd of 1,400-plus Wednesday at the historic and handsome Tampa Theatre. The audience largely consisted of fawning females and their mostly polite male dates. For nearly all singer/songwriters, it would be the ideal situation to ply one's trade. 

But the notoriously detached LaMontagne appeared like he would have rather been back on his New England farm tending to goats or reading J.R.R. Tolkien.

The bearded, flannel-wearing 35-year-old sex symbol stood like a statue on the side of the stage, cloaked in shadows for 90 minutes. He performed solo, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica; or with a lap steel/standard guitarist, bassist and drummer. Either way, the songs basically maintained the same slow tempo. LaMontagne's mopey Van Morrison croon might be moving for a song or three - but when taken in long doses it begins to sound more like faux soul than the sincere rasp of a performer lost in his music.

Songs from 2008's "Gossip in the Grain" dominated the set list. Unfortunately, the horn section that made that album LaMontagne's most listenable to date was sadly missing. This was most evident on the Stax/Volt channeling hit "You Are the Best Thing," which sounded flat when given the folk treatment.  As a lyricist, LaMontagne has managed to get by on love letter platitudes and banal confessions. The most embarrassing of them all is "Meg White," his valentine to the White Stripes drummer.

"Meg White, you're all right," he sang oh-so somberly. "In fact, I think you're pretty swell, can't you tell?"

The highlight of the evening came after the opening number "All the Wild Horses." Giddy audience members barked out requests. "It's like making love, you just can't jump into it," LaMontagne responded. He waited for the crowd to quiet down and then muttered, as if to himself, "It's a town full of fast women."

The last remark made this reviewer chuckle out loud. But there would be no more laughter for the rest of the evening. By the time the tortured artist had to trot out "Trouble," the "American Idol"-made-famous hit from his 2004 debut disc of the same name, LaMontagne sounded like he had already transported himself back to the good read awaiting him on the tour bus - or the feeding of his farm animals.

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