Ritter finds songs in his own life for a change
By John Benson
Narcissism naturally runs rampant among artists.
A craving for admiration often drives creative types to seek a stage and audience. However, the belief that their life or story is much more interesting than the common man can also turn off fans.
Folk singer-songwriter Josh Ritter has taken a different approach over the last decade, releasing six albums where he’s been intrigued and inspired by the world. Now the 1999 Oberlin College graduate has finally found his story interesting enough to inspire his music. The problem is it took a personal setback to reveal itself to the 35-year-old Idaho native.
“There’s never a time when it’s been possible to write from a real template of experience, at least not from me,” said Ritter, calling from Boise, Idaho. “I like to spice it up a little bit but I was married and kind of had a tough divorce. That was something that I know a lot of people don’t expect to go through, like I didn’t, but I kind of used the opportunity to write a little bit and not let that moment pass me by.”
That writing leads to Ritter’s next album, which is tentatively due out next year. He admits it’s an odd experience for him to open himself up. In fact, in the past, he’s specifically eschewed the process, feeling as though it cheapened his product. This is no longer the case.
“This is the first time I have allowed myself to talk about my personal life in a song,” Ritter said. “I don’t like to do that. A lot of times I felt that if you write about your personal life, in one sense too much you’re confining yourself to a smaller room than if you step out of yourself and write about the entire world. You can write about things that are unreal and strange but this felt like something I was really compelled to do.”
The result is what he calls a spare album filled with sharp little songs emanating from a range of emotions, including anger and hopefulness. One such track is “New Lover,” which he hinted could be played when he returns to Northeast Ohio for a Sunday show at Kent Stage.
Thinking back to his college years, Ritter said his experience at the liberal-arts college still shapes him today. He said his old professors would be proud to hear his career has expanded beyond music to that of novelist. His debut book, “Bright’s Passage,” came out last year, with another one in the works.
Other things that stand out in Ritter’s mind about Oberlin from a musical standpoint are concerts that he attended while in college that shaped him as a musician.
“The first was Gillian Welch, one of the very first shows I saw on her first tour at Oberlin,” Ritter said. “That show blew me away as a young guitar player and songwriter, to see two people doing something that was just cosmic and undeniably genius and better than all of the buzz of all of these things you hear about when you’re listening to music in college. Another I loved was watching Built to Spill at the Grog Shop playing [Neil Young’s] “Cortez the Killer.” That was a pretty amazing moment, too.”
Now that Ritter is a touring artist, he actually crossed paths with his idol Welch. That said, the encounter wasn’t necessarily memorable for her.
“We played a festival last year and shared a dressing room.” Ritter said. “I was unable to talk.”
But he did tell her how she changed his life at the Oberlin show, right?
“Oh no, I was too petrified to tell her,” Ritter said. “She asked me about a guitar tuner, and we had some whiskey, but I couldn’t speak. It was all kind of mimed.”
Finally, when asked if Ritter realized his music may have that same effect on young musicians, he said, laughing, “Well, I will share whiskey with anybody.”