Josh Ritter

Elevated by rich, evocative songwriting, Josh Ritter’s lush Americana has made him one of the genre’s defining voices. The journey began in Moscow, Idaho, where Ritter was born in 1976 and heard Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash’s “Girl from the North Country”, which spurred him to pick up the guitar. After dropping his pursuit of a neuroscience degree to focus on music, Ritter released his 1999 self-titled debut, which featured lo-fi folk like “Letter from Omaha”. Just a couple of years later, 2001’s Golden Age of Radio filled out the sound, and songs like the haunted “Harrisburg” established Ritter as a songwriter to be reckoned with (it also earned him a particularly devout following in Ireland, where “Me & Jiggs” was released as a single). In 2007, he went all-in on a big roots-rock sound for The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, upping the energy right from the start with the rowdy “To the Dogs or Whoever”. Since then, he’s further broadened his sound and thematic scope, exploring gospel-indebted rock on 2015’s Sermon on the Rocks and getting political for 2019’s vivid Fever Breaks.