• Two Upcoming Solo Shows in Canada
Catch Josh - solo acoustic - in St. John on October 19th and in Halifax for Pop Explosion on October 21st. More info and ticket links here.
• 2nd Orchestra Show in Dublin Added
Josh and the band's special concert with a 24-piece orchestra at Dublin's Vicar St. on 11th Dec. sold out in one day - so a 2nd show has been added! Tickets for night 2 on Friday 12th Dec. are on sale here.
• Concert with Full 24-Piece Orchestra in Dublin, Dec. 11th
Josh and the band will perform a special concert at Dublin's Vicar St. with a full orchestra behind them! Tickets go on sale September 8th. More info here.
• Stream and Share Josh's Entire Catalog on Imeem
For the first time ever, all in one place. Learn more here, visit new site here.
• Josh Blogs From the Road on IrishTimes.com
Blogging from behind the scenes once again. Visit here to read!
• The Phoenix Crowns Josh as Idaho's Best All-Time Solo Artist.
An honor. Thanks, Phoenix! Read more here.
• New Video ("Real Long Distance") From the Band
Now online to see is a music video Josh and the band made... See it here.
• New Live at the 9:30 Club Released
Eight songs taken from last Fall's sold-out Washington, DC show - compiled into an official release! Learn more here.
• "Temptation of Adam" Video
Solo acoustic performance Josh did of this song during the Juan's Basement sessions now online. Youtube video is here.
Josh Ritter and the band returned to The Late Show with David Letterman on January 22nd, 2008. Watch their performance of "To the Dogs or Whoever" below, and be sure to pass it along...
Performed and filmed in July 2007 in "Juan's Basement" (literally), these videos are among the first live performances to be seen or heard of Josh and the band tackling the songs of The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.
For more on Juan's Basement and their great work, visit here.
The "best of" Josh Ritter videos available online are below at the Official Josh Ritter YouTube Channel, for all to see, share, comment and put on your pages. Official music videos, TV appearances, concert clips and more...
click above
Over the clatter of piano and strum of an electric guitar that opens his fourth studio album, Josh Ritter leaps into rapid-fire lyrics that reference Joan of Arc, Calamity Jane and Florence Nightingale, all of whom seem to be stuck together in the belly of a whale. As the follow-up to last year's critically-acclaimed album The Animal Years, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter is his most adventurous, fresh, and freewheeling work to date.
While The Animal Years was a meticulously crafted and stately paean, for Conquests the artist radically revamped his working methods and his sound. “I needed to be somebody different,” the singer says. “The air of gravitas around me was getting oppressive. For some reason it seemed like there was a premium being placed on earnestness and that can be pretty stifling. There was a lot of talk about true love and righteous indignation. I wanted to write about gunslingers and missile silos.” The result is an often raucous, occasionally dizzying affair, with pounding keyboards, strings, horns, and his new producer and long-time collaborator Sam Kassirer, leading the charge. About the recording conditions in the Maine farmhouse where the record was made, Ritter enthuses, “You should have seen it up there. It was January and twenty below. We had horns in the attic, we had strings in the barn, we had a gaggle of people shooting targets with bb guns in the woods. It was a full house and everyone was there to throw themselves at the music. There was no holding back.”
The artistic leaps Josh Ritter displays on Conquests are not without their stepping-stones, however. On a conceptual level, Paul McCartney’s Ram served as an ever-present reminder to enjoy the process of writing. Ritter was attracted to the free-spirited quality of the solo album McCartney made at his own farmhouse—amidst the Beatles’ tumultuous breakup: “It sounded like he had something to prove, but also like he didn’t really care. In terms of my favorite records, Ram is more about the philosophy. If this guy can do this after what he came through, then, okay, maybe I could try something like this too. It really loosened me up.” Stepping farther back, he cites Buddy Holly’s apocryphal "The Apartment Tapes" as a major influence. “A friend passed me Buddy Holly’s Apartment Tapes. The tapes are plain and genius. Buddy sang ‘Learning the Game’ and ‘That’s What they Say’ in his apartment in New York City and you can hear his wife bumping around in the kitchen and the whole thing feels clear but not simple. Those recordings feel like a Raymond Carver story. I listen to him and remember that it doesn’t have to be all nine-minute songs. That guy can get more across in a couplet than some people are lucky to learn in their whole life.”
Given the new lyrical and musical trails that he is blazing, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter proves that one can still cross any number of Rubicons all the while not taking themselves too seriously. Historic indeed.
I second Kathleen's request. Please come to California! I'll travel to LA (or even the Bay Area if I must). We're hooked from watching the Vicar St DVD; we really want to see you live.
I'm so grateful to have been in attendence at you 'infamous' 930 show in DC. It was fucking awesome. You lyrics and song are a real inspiration. Thanks, Neil
went to one of your concerts my first weekend back in the states, and you almost made culture shock and every other grief better. you have to be the happiest performer i've ever seen - thanks for the contagious grin, and the good art.