Legendary singer-songwriter Josh Ritter recently released the seventh album of his decade-long career. Declared by Paste Magazine as one of the 100 greatest American songwriters, Ritter began writing at a young age on a lute made for him by his father.
As a young boy, Ritter was influenced by the folk music of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, and the work of his predecessors resonates in his current compositions.
Although passionately pursuing music throughout his youth, Ritter attended Oberlin College intending to major in neuroscience.
This deviation from his musical roots was short-lived, however, as he eventually pursued a self-created major titled “American History Through Narrative Folk Music,” tying his passion for folk music to an academic sphere and giving him a knowledgeable base from which to contribute his own American folk works.
Ritter’s career, beginning with the recording of his first album at age 21, has been highly productive and not lacking in acclaim.
After recording his first album on the Oberlin College campus, Ritter took off for Scotland and a stint studying at the School of Scottish Folk Studies for six months. Here, he frequently played open mic nights and sold copies of his album.
Through this self-publication, he became well-known enough to be spotted by Glen Hansard, an Irish folk star most known prominently for his leading role in the film Once. Hansard, wildly impressed with Ritter’s performances and compositions, invited him to return with his band to Ireland.
While in Ireland, Ritter recorded and released his second album, Golden Age of Radio, which received acclaim in Ireland and the UK.
With this new, stronger fan base, Ritter released his subsequent albums Hello Starling in 2003, The Animal Years in 2006, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter in 2007, and So Runs the World Away in 2010. Songs from these albums have been featured in television show Parenthood and the Natalie Portman film The Other Woman.
In addition to producing these albums, Ritter published a novel titled Bright’s Passage in 2011, exploring his love for literature—the title of So Runs the World Away is a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Ritter’s roots in traditional folk music as well as his poeticism in crafting lyrics create rich and pleasant compositions.
The album opens with “Third Arm,” which is a delicate, nostalgic love story conveyed in a song totaling only 56 seconds in length.
Within this short period of time, Ritter manages to capture the listener’s interest and convey a story full of emotion and depth.
This leads into “Evil Eye,” whose pleasant guitar plucking and simple harmonies are reminiscent to many folk tunes from the popular Tallest Man on Earth.
Ritter’s lyrical prowess is especially highlighted in “Certain Light,” in which he sings very positively of newfound love and leads the listener to create expectations for the remainder of the song.
He then violates these expectations by confessing that “she only looks like you in a certain kind of light,” which reveals that the song, although singing romantically about one person, is actually addressed to another.
In this way, Ritter makes great use of his literary interests to create love songs that deviate from what the listeners expect, delighting them in the surprise.
Ritter also sings pleasantly and playfully in “Nightmares,” which sings in hushed tones of dreams and nightmares with a comforting, repetitive pattern. This song instantly inspires in the listener the nostalgia of lullabies and of childish dreams.
Ritter’s range of emotion from heartbroken to gleeful to confident to childish all play out in The Beast in its Tracks, providing a rich listening experience for his audience.
Whether one is interested in the pleasant melodies, instrumentals or subjects, Ritter’s new album showcases the talent present in all those before it to please, yet again, his loyal and growing fan base.
The album can be purchased online at the iTunes store. For information on Ritter’s upcoming tour, visit www.joshritter.com/shows/. Ritter has a show in Seattle on March 23 at the Neptune Theatre.
PHOTO COURTESY / JOSHRITTER.COM
