Josh Ritter New Album

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SONY BMG/VICTOR TO RELEASE
THE HISTORICAL CONQUESTS OF JOSH RITTER AUGUST 21

"How refreshing and inspiring it is to encounter a young artist whose achievements match his ambitions." -Washington Post


Josh Ritter
On August 21 Sony BMG Music Entertainment/Victor will release Josh Ritter's highly anticipated label debut The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Arriving at the apex of a breakout year, Historical Conquests--Ritter's fourth full-length CD--follows the success of the critically acclaimed The Animal Years (2006), which The Boston Globe describes as his "most intensely political, deeply personal, and darkly ambitious disc yet..." Paste Magazine named him one of the "100 Best Living Songwriters" and author Stephen King named it his #1 album of 2006 stating, "this is the most exuberant outburst of imagery since Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall'."

For Historical Conquests, Ritter altered his approach to the recording process in an effort to make a more spontaneous album. Ritter expounds, "A lot of this record is an effort to capture moments when they were at their most passionate; to capture many different emotions that simply wouldn't work if we had ever tried to re-record them." He goes on to describe, "The vocal take on 'To the Dogs;' the feel of 'Wait for Love;' the guitar of 'Mind's Eye'--there are a lot of different feelings here, but what ties them together for me is how raw they were captured and how we maintained that rawness throughout the production."

Recorded in the winter of 2007 during breaks from being on the road, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter was produced by keyboardist and longtime collaborator Sam Kassirer in Maine at The Great North Sound Society. The album's 14 songs were written by Ritter (vocals and guitar) and feature Kassirer (electric and acoustic pianos, organs, guitar, vibraphone, and percussion), Zack Hickman (double bass, electric bass, acoustic and electric), Liam Hurley (drums and percussion) and The Great North Sound Society Orchestra.

A national tour in support of The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter will be announced shortly.

Check out the first single "Right Moves", off The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter:
100.asx | smil.mov | 30.swf | full.swf

http://www.joshritter.com/

[Published on: 7/26/07]
 

Comments

KCReb starstarstarstarstar Thu 7/26/2007 10:28AM
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KCReb

This is very good news.

Animal Years is an incredible album and I'm curious to see how he follows it up.

aquariumdrunk starstarstarstarstar Thu 7/26/2007 11:27AM
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aquariumdrunk

Awesome, awesome news. I really have high hopes for this one! If he can deliver another album's worth of material as strong as Animal Years, I'll be sold.

On a side note, when did Stephen King become a music critic?! The guy seems to chime in with every singer/songwriter out there! If I read another press that includes a Stephen King opinion, I'm beginning a campaign of angry hate mail.

Window Thu 7/26/2007 02:45PM
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King plays rhythm guitar for The Rock Bottom Remainders, whose literary community members include Dave Barry, Tad Bartimus, Roy Blount, Jr., Michael Dorris, Robert Fulghum, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Matt Groening, Josh Kelly, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, Ridley Pearson, Joel Selvin, and Amy Tan.

http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/band.html

Window Thu 7/26/2007 02:57PM
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Oh yeah, Ritter recorded "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter" in a Maine farmhouse/studio -- King country as you well know.

aquariumdrunk Thu 7/26/2007 05:39PM
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aquariumdrunk

Well that helps make it a little more clear!

Thanks for the info, Window.

petemora starstarstarstarstar Fri 7/27/2007 12:53PM
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I love him. Great physical comedian, he was awesome in "Three's Company".

MaseBase starstarstarstarstar Thu 8/2/2007 11:46AM
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MaseBase

That was JOHN Ritter, not Josh ;-)

Either way, Josh Ritter is a phenomenal songwriter and Animal Years is one of the best albums of 2006 for sure! When I saw him last year, I was pleasantly surprised by his stage persona and how funny he was. Telling odd stories and just being himself, he exudes great charisma from stage as a solo act.