Josh Ritter
Voices Carry
For his new album, Josh Ritter was inspired more by singers than songwriters

By Jeff Niesel

Idaho-born singer-songwriter Josh Ritter got his start over a decade ago busking the streets of New England. Calling via phone from Boston, where he was rehearsing for an upcoming tour, Ritter is on a much different place these days. His new album, So the World Runs Away, is his most complex yet, featuring dense instrumentation and narrative songs that are united by a theme of yearning to hang onto life before it slips away. Ritter who bridges the folk and rock worlds, spoke about the new disc and the way his career has evolved since he issued his self-titled debut over ten years ago.
 
It seems like each album you make becomes more orchestrated and ornate. Is that the case?
With each record, you get a chance to do something a little different and a little bit more. I’ve done other stuff where I’ve kept it a little simpler. This is the record where I can fully see all the colors. I get the full set of paints.

Did that make it more difficult to record?
When you have more options, the tendency is to throw them all up there and see what sticks. That’s the part that takes the most time. That’s one of the reasons it took a long time to do.

You provide a lyric sheet, and I was struck by how a song such as “The Curse” is narrative. Talk about how your songwriting has evolved.
You do get better. I used to think it wasn’t a getting better thing. Your standards get a little higher and you stop trying to shoulder the entire world on a single song. The narrative songs have gotten more and more important to me. I see the stories really clearly with this record, but increasingly with the last couple of records. It’s a matter of sticking to your guns and not waiting until you get your “Free Falling” or whatever. Though I’d be happy to get that as well.

Have certain songwriters inspired you?
I thought this time I was inspired more by voice than by songwriters, like by Nina Simone and people who did incredible things with their voices. For someone like me, my voice isn’t anything special. I do love how somebody like Nina can bring emotion that’s tenfold what she’s saying. Songwriters have been a portion of the inspiration.

Is “Folk Bloodbath” a reference to the Johnny Cash tune about Delia?
Delia is in a bunch of folk songs as is Barbara Allen and Stagger Lee.  I wanted to bring all the characters together from all those songs and kill them off all at once. I thought it was a very American song.

Cash’s tune is vicious. I thought yours was more compassionate.
In some ways. One of the things I was excited about with this record is that the narrator is always in for a fall. Everything is about to go south. I like that. I felt like in writing that song, I was being pretty vicious.

Does the title of the album sum up that feeling?
Yeah, definitely. It’s more than you bargained for. There’s no getting out alive.

How much different was writing the novel you have slated to come out later this year?
Initially, it was different. I had the idea in my teeth and I needed to get it down as quickly as possible. Now, I see it as more like songwriting because every single word is bothering me. I thought it would be a much more macro exercise. But it’s like when I just wrote a long song and I’m still fretting over single lines. It’s not just a novelist’s conceit. It is a lot like writing a song; it just takes a lot longer.

I read that you originally tried to write songs on a lute. Is that true?
Yeah, it was all we had in the house. We had enough for an early music concert. My dad built a harpsichord and we had the recorders and that was about it.

And did you originally intend to study Neuroscience at Oberlin?
Yeah.

What made you switch?
My grades. That would have been terrifying. I’m so consistently happy that didn’t happen.

After putting out your self-titled debut, you moved around a lot and logged some serious hours at open mic nights. What did you learn from that experience?
You learn firstly that you only have one song, really. People’s attention goes within a song. I learned I’m not the center of the universe, which is a good thing to learn. And no matter what, you always have next time. It’s like a sporting event. You have to go and do your best and sometimes, the wins fall in your favor. I treated it like a job. I always have. It’s my joy to do it. A lot of the stuff that went into playing open mics was finding parking and buying beer for people who I was hoping would let me play.

How key was the endorsement you received from the Frames?
At the time, it was really important. I didn’t know how important it would become. Someone was giving me a chance and saw something in my music. [Frames singer] Glenn [Hansard] has been that way with a lot of people. I’ve seen him offer that to a lot of different people. You either take it and run with it or you don’t. I’m happy I did. It came at a time when I really needed it.

Do you consider yourself a folk singer?
I think I play rock ’n’ roll with lots of words. Most of my favorite musicians I would never think they were folk. I don’t know what folk is. I know what rock is. Rock is the feeling I got when I first heard Johnny Cash and those people that didn’t care and just went out played. Rock is a feeling.