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About Josh Ritter
The Beast In Its Tracks is the new album from renowned singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. Of the record, Ritter says, “In the year after my marriage ended, I realized that I had more new songs than I’d ever had at one time. Far from the grand, sweeping feel of the songs on So Runs the World Away, these new songs felt like rocks in the shoe, hard little nuggets of whatever they were, be it spite, remorse, or happiness.” See insert in advance CD booklet for complete artist notes.
This is the sixth full-length recording from Ritter, who has been widely heralded by critics and fans alike. As a special preview, a trailer of the album can be viewed here. Additionally, the record can now be pre-ordered at joshritter.com and iTunes and the first single, “Joy To You Baby,” is now available as a digital download. Moreover, a limited edition 7″ single of “Joy To You Baby” (with an exclusive non-album b-side) is now available to purchase at joshritter.com and, on December 18, will be at indie record stores nationwide. The package features a coke-bottle-clear vinyl and is limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies.
Ritter & The Royal City Band will celebrate the release of The Beast In Its Tracks with a North American tour set to kick off in Dallas on March 13; please see below for a list of dates. All concert tickets are bundled with a unique musical package including a redemption code to download The Beast In Its Tracks upon release date. Ticket purchasers will also receive an immediate download of “Joy To You Baby.” The Beast In Its Tracks will also be available in a deluxe edition vinyl package and CD format.
Recorded during 2011-2012 at the Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, Maine, The Beast In Its Tracks continues Ritter’s longtime collaboration with producer and keyboard player Sam Kassirer. As Josh describes, “I hadn’t composed this stuff, I’d scrawled it down, just trying to keep ahead of the heartbreak. They needed to be recorded like that. We needed to work fast, make decisions quickly, keep the songs as spare as they could be kept, and above all never allow ourselves to blunt the sharp edges. Some of the songs were mean or evil. So be it.”
The new album follows Ritter’s 2010 release, So Runs The World Away, of which Bob Boilen from NPR Music declared, “I’ve come to expect good records from him…but this one took my breath away,” while the Boston Globe praised, “quite sensationalÂ…marks the finest music he has made.”
In 2011, Ritter made is debut as a published author with his New York Times Best-selling novel, Bright’s Passage (Dial Press/Random House). Of the work, Stephen King writes in The New York Times Book Review, “Shines with a compressed lyricism that recalls Ray Bradbury in his prime . . . This is the work of a gifted novelist.”
