Josh Ritter: Coming Out of the Dark Clouds

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Credit Rich Orris

    About two years ago, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter’s heart was broken. He and his wife of a few years decided to separate and while writing and publishing a novel, keeping up a healthy touring schedule, and releasing an EP – Josh wrote new songs to help himself understand and heal.

The songs add up to his forthcoming album The Beast in its Tracks which is available for pre-order and will be released on March 5th. In a statement on his website announcing the record, Josh wrote: "All heartbreak is awful – my broken heart wasn’t unique. But writing these songs was helping me get through the night and I didn’t have the strength to care or question."

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 Ritter is known -and loved in many circles- for sweeping story songs with poetic lyrics involving adventure, whiskey, sometimes magic, horses, trains, ships, women - and historical figures galore. The songs on The Beast in its Tracks are smaller – they are personal – but are no less singable and beautiful than his previous work.

Josh Ritter and The Royal City Band are playing at The Egg in Albany on Wednesday, February 13th – part of a warm-up tour for their record release tour. 

(In this interview, when Josh mentions “Great North” he’s referring to Great North Sound Society in Maine – a studio run by his producer and key-boardist, Sam Kassirer.)