Album Review: Josh Ritter, Fever Breaks

The prolific singer-songwriter follows his acclaimed 2017 album, Gathering, with Fever Breaks, his 10th studio outing.

It’s a fine record that trades on Ritter’s distinctive brand of Americana. The LP was produced by Grammy Award-winning musician Jason Isbell, formerly of Drive-By Truckers and presently of The 400 Unit. Channelling the history of Nashville’s rich musical heritage, the 10 tracks were recorded at RCA’s historic Studio A, and Isbell is on-hand to round out the sound on Fever Breaks. His regular band, The 400 Unit, encompassing the formidable talents of Derry Deborja (piano, organ, accordion), Chad Gamble (drums), Jimbo Hart (bass), Sadler Vaden (guitars) and Amanda Shires (violin and vocals) are here too.

With stellar musicians and a visionary producer spearheading the project, the album is given further stimulation by the stunning engineering supplied by the acclaimed Matt Ross-Spang, whose CV includes John Prine, Lori McKenna and Elvis Presley. An acclaimed balladeer, here Ritter crafts his wistful melodies and literate writing within some alt-country and folk tones, grabbing our attention immediately with the terrific opener ‘Ground Don’t Want Me’ and the subsequent ‘On The Water’. It’s not all delicate ditties, though, with single ‘Old Black Magic’ (a stomping blues juggernaut), and ‘Losing Battles’ allowing The 400 Unit to add swagger to the proceedings. Fever Breaks solidifies Ritter’s position as one of the best singer-songwriters around.