[Vision2020] Moscow's Josh Ritter

[Carl Westberg]

Nice story about Moscow's Josh Ritter from today's NPR website....
For
 Josh Ritter, Mummies and Shakespeare Are the Stuff of Music
































































































































































































































































        
        
           Posted by 
        Mike Fritz
        
         and 
          
            Mike Melia
          
          
































































































































        , May 13, 2010
        The works of Flannery O'Connor,
 Philip Roth and Stephen King are probably not the first influences that
 come to mind for a songwriter. But after hearing Josh Ritter sing, it 
quickly becomes apparent why authors are important to the Moscow, Idaho,
 native.




"I've always loved people that let bad stuff happen to their 
characters," Ritter says on his tour bus parked outside the 9:30 Club in
 Washington, D.C. "Because if you're going to 
make a song a story, something has to happen. And most of the time, 
something bad has to happen."


For Ritter, 33, mostly good has been happening since his 
self-released debut in 1999 and then opening for Glen Hansard and his 
band the Frames in Ireland. His 
fifth full-length and latest album, 'So Runs the World Away,' 
came out in late April.


In 2006, Paste Magazine 
named Ritter one of the 100 best living songwriters. NPR
 Music's All Songs Considered host Bob 
Boilen said of Ritter's new album, "I've come to expect good records
 from him, but this one took my breath away."
Yet despite the 
critical acclaim for his music, Ritter seems most at ease when talking 
about classic literature and why he enjoys reading Shakespeare. "So Runs
 the World Away" was named after a line from Hamlet, a character Ritter 
said he could relate to.


"Hamlet is obviously so much like all of us," Ritter said, "very 
mercurial and confused."


In his song "The Curse," Ritter tells the story of a mummy who falls 
in love with an archeologist, singing, "After thousands of years, what a
 face to wake up to." 




 




 


Josh Ritter has tour dates 
across the United States through much of the summer.

 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. 
http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5
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