Josh Ritter

John Burnside introduced me to Josh Ritter. Last Friday night at the Empire (Hammersmith) was good. Two songs really stand out: 'Girl in the War' (mp3) and 'Thin Blue Flame' (mp3). These both appear on his third and most recent album, The Animal Years.

Of 'Thin Blue Flame', Marc Hogan had this to say on Pitchfork last year:

"Thin Blue Flame" made me shiver when Ritter debuted it June 2 in Brooklyn-- still does. The Idaho native's mountain-twang logorrhea sprawls over ten minutes ("Singing about vengeance like it's the joy of the Lord"). His clean strums are similar in tone, harmony and scope to Sterling Morrison's on "Heroin", while Brian Deck's glasses-clinking production heightens the immediacy of an already-urgent composition. 10 minutes older and who-knows how-much wiser, the song ends in the lonely feedback of watchful, world-weary humanism: "I stopped looking for royal cities in the air/ Only a full house gonna have a prayer".

And the NYT:

The album's tour-de-force is the nine-and-a-half minute "Thin Blue Flame," which ponders destruction and rebirth with an inexorable crescendo and, for most of the song, just two chords. "In darkness he looks for the light that has died," he sings, "but you need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find."

From 'Girl in the War':

Paul said to Peter you got to rock yourself a little harder
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire
But I got a girl in the war Paul her eyes are like champagne
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain

Face Culture has an online video interview with Josh Ritter here.

Friday's gig concluded with a beautiful, unaccompanied, acoustic performance of 'Can't Leave This World Behind' from the Golden Age of Radio:

Lawrence, KS (Can't Leave This World Behind)

Dirt roads and dryland farming might be the death of me
But I can't leave this world behind
Debts are not like prison where there's hope of getting free
And I can't leave this world behind

I've been from here to Lawrence, Kansas
Trying to leave my state of mind
Trying to leave this awful sadness
But I can't leave this world behind

South of Delia there's a patch out back by the willow trees
And I can't leave this world behind
It's a fenced in piece of nothing where I hear voices on my knees
And I can't leave this world behind

Some prophecies are self-fulfilling
But I've had to work for all of mine
Better times will come to me, God willing
Cause I can't leave this world behind

This world must be frightening everybody's on the run
And I can't leave this world behind
And my house is a wooden one and its built on a wooden one
Seems I can't leave this world behind

Preacher says when the Master calls us
He's gonna give us wings to fly
But my wings are made of hay and corn husks
So I can't leave this world behind