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Nice story about Moscow's Josh Ritter from today's NPR website....<br><div class="headline"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/05/josh-ritter.html">For
Josh Ritter, Mummies and Shakespeare Are the Stuff of Music</a></div>
<!-- START BODY COPY HERE -->
<div class="byline">Posted by <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/fritz">
<!-- START AUTHOR HERE -->Mike Fritz<!-- END AUTHOR HERE -->
</a>
and <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/melia">
Mike Melia
</a>
, May 13, 2010</div>
<div class="body">The works of Flannery <span class="caps">O'C</span>onnor,
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.<BR>
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"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, <span class="caps">D.C. </span>"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."<BR>
For Ritter, 33, mostly good has been happening since his
self-released debut in 1999 and then opening for Glen Hansard and his
band <a href="http://www.theframes.ie/">the Frames</a> in Ireland. His
fifth full-length and latest album, <a href="http://www.joshritter.com/music/37">'So Runs the World Away,'</a>
came out in late April.<BR>
In 2006, <a href="http://www.pastemagazine.com/">Paste Magazine</a>
named Ritter one of the 100 best living songwriters. <span class="caps">NPR</span>
Music's All Songs Considered host <a href="http://www.npr.org/about/press/2010/042610.FirstListens.html">Bob
Boilen said</a> of Ritter's new album, "I've come to expect good records
from him, but this one took my breath away."<BR>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.<BR>
"Hamlet is obviously so much like all of us," Ritter said, "very
mercurial and confused."<BR>
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." <BR>
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<BR>
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<BR>
<a href="http://www.joshritter.com/">Josh Ritter</a> has tour dates
across the United States through much of the summer.<BR>
</div> <br /><hr />The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. <a href='http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5' target='_new'>Get busy.</a></body>
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