1 post tagged “josh ritter”

Josh Ritter hardly seems to spend any time in his homeland. His continuing popularity in Ireland has great benefits for music fans in mainland UK. He comes to see us too.

It’s a newly bearded Ritter who takes the stage and immediately our friend from Idaho flashes that big, kindly smile of his. The grin is a constant with Ritter. He loves his job. More on the beard later.

With two strong albums slung over his shoulder – and a third on the way – there’s a perfect blend of old and new. His low-tech band pumps up favourite tracks like Harrisburg and Come And Find Me.  Other Side displays his ability to twist folksy/country convention intelligently (I’m still waiting for the whisky to whisk me away/I’m still waiting for the ashtray to lead me astray’). And although You Don’t Make it Easy Babe forces warmly familiar thoughts of Dylan, Ritter still has a unique sound.

He can rock it up too. The crowd buzz as the chorus of Hello Starling swells. They vicariously lap up the nostalgia of Me and Jiggs. If the bass line in The Golden Age Of Radio doesn’t have the distinctive drive as the album track nobody is complaining.

But some wag isn’t prepared to give due attention. He starts to heckle, shouting ‘Stop playing your middle class songs!’. Ritter didn’t really know what to say to something so strangely insulting.  Looking a little hurt, Ritter still risks a quiet tune, killing the lights to perform the transcendent ballad Wings in complete darkness. (The wag having been silenced by a brief dialogue with a six foot five Ritter fan).

Its not that Ritter doesn’t like banter. He tells us of tetanus jabs in Nottingham, the confusion he found inside his first Kinder egg. He tells us he’s growing his beard until Bush leaves office (and he started growing it four years ago…). He suggests a sleepover arrangement whereby we take Dubya one night a week just to give the U.S. a rest. The crowd cherish these moments.

For an encore, it’s a supremely confident Ritter who unplugs completely, moves from the mic and sings the tune some had been shouting for all night. California with its lyric: ‘It’s alright, I’ll be back/and I’ll bring the sun to shine/in your eyes, on your shoulders’ makes a few weak at the knees. The rest marvel in spellbound silence.

Ritter once said ‘There’s no shame in hoping a song will be remembered long after you’re gone’.  He’ll get his wish.