The Ritter truth
Running a marathon, writing the folk-pop equivalent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, buying a house, releasing the finest record of his career. All in a year’s work for Josh Ritter. John Walshe travelled to Boston to meet the young songwriter.
John Walshe, 08 Mar 2006
Josh Ritter looks and sounds confident, more secure in himself and his place in the world than I have ever seen him.
I’ve interviewed the Idaho songwriter at least half a dozen times since he first came to Ireland, as a special guest of The Frames. I’ve never heard him as assured as he sounds now. Throughout our two-hour interview, his conversation, easy and relaxed, ranges from Voltaire to Edward Hopper, from American foreign policy to buying his first home.
We’re sitting in a jam-packed coffee shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a Saturday afternoon, while the natives (students mostly) shelter from the cold with hot chocolate, coffee or, in my case, hot cider with cinnamon.
We’ve just completed the unofficial Josh Ritter Boston Car Tour, driving around Boston and Cambridge with Josh and his manager, Darius Zelkha, while they pointed out some of his old haunts – Boston was where the young Ritter cut his teeth as a songwriter at open mic nights when he left college.
All that was years ago now, and Josh is ready to release his fourth album, The Animal Years, his strongest collection yet and one that confirms his status as one of the finest young songwriters in America.
Apocalyptic imagery, powerful narratives, political and social ideologies abound over the course of these 11 songs, where wolves and angels tread alongside saints and miscreants.
It has been suggested that the album’s title refers to the years since Hello Starling, which were pretty much spent on the road. Were those days so gruelling that they became The Animal Years?
“Well, they were gruelling but what I’m really referring to is the idea of something in transition. Between Starling and now, I did a lot of travelling and a lot of writing,” he sighs.
“But it was a confusing time. You’re growing up, trying to decide how to live your life. Stupid things get in the way, just regular little things, but they really make a difference to recording and writing, to singing, to believing what you’re doing in your job.”
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