Biography

Introduction

Josh Ritter (born October 21, 1976) is an American singer-songwriter.

Biography

Ritter was born in Moscow, Idaho, in 1976, to two neuroscientists. At age 14, after hearing a copy of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” owned by his parents, he attempted to write songs on a lute that his father had built, before abandoning the lute and buying his first guitar at K-Mart.

Ritter began writing songs as a teenager, while still teaching himself to play the guitar. He attended Oberlin College to study neuroscience, but later changed his major to the self-created "American History Through Narrative Folk Music". At the age of 21 Josh recorded his first album Josh Ritter at a recording studio on campus. After graduating, Josh moved to Scotland to attend the School of Scottish Folk Studies for six months . Josh then moved back to Idaho for a few months, before moving to Providence, Rhode Island, then Somerville, Massachusetts where he worked temporary jobs and played at open mic nights. During this time, Ritter sold copies of his album and was spotted by Glen Hansard and his band The Frames, who invited him back to Ireland. As an early sign of his success to come in Ireland, Ritter found on a trip to Ireland that his album sold particularly well at open mics there. With the money from merchandise sales, Ritter was eventually able to quit his day job and devote himself to music full-time.

A year and a half after recording Josh Ritter, Ritter recorded his second album Golden Age of Radio for $1000 and self-published it. The album was recorded in three different studios: Soundgun in Philadelphia, Electric Cave in New Hampshire, and a friend's basement studio. While promoting Golden Age of Radio, he met Jim Olsen, head of independent record label Signature Sounds, who offered to remaster and rerelease the album after hearing Ritter play. The song "Me & Jiggs" was subsequently released as a single in Ireland, where Ritter was quickly becoming a word-of-mouth success, first opening for The Frames, then headlining his own shows. Ritter's third record, Hello Starling, which was produced by Dave Odlum, a former guitarist for The Frames, reached #2 on Irish charts.

His style is in the tradition of folk music and ballads. He is influenced by the lyrics of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Leonard Cohen, and the works of Mark Twain.

Ritter and Ron Sexsmith headlined the Friday night Singer-songwriter event at the Hotel Viking at the 2004 Newport Folk Festival. He also appeared at Oxegen 2005, and has headlined with artists such as Joan Baez, who later released her own version of Ritter's song "Wings" on her album Dark Chords on a Big Guitar. He was signed by a British label, V2 Records, in 2005 and Hello Starling was subsequently re-released. He began performing and touring in a crossover duo with the classical violinist Hilary Hahn in 2005.

Ritter's fourth album, 2006's The Animal Years, and fifth album, 2007's The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, each received a warm critical reception.

On April 7, 2009 Josh Ritter reissued his second album Golden Age of Radio as a two-disc Deluxe Edition. The first disc contains the complete original studio album. The second disc contains solo acoustic versions of the original tracks, b-side and remixed tracks, and two music videos.

On May 9, 2009 Ritter married fellow musician Dawn Landes in Branson, MO.