Napoleon in white — on the heels of an acclaimed album, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter ponders his future conquests
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Growing up in Moscow, Idaho isn’t all bad for aspiring musicians. Josh Ritter’s hometown, located right along the Washington-Idaho border, is not known as a music industry hotbed, but the remoteness of small-town living had a hand in shaping Ritter’s unique songwriting — a blend of highly instrumental folk music that resides within the loose borders of indie rock.
“I think the isolation of it is a big factor,” Ritter says. “It definitely fostered a lot of experimentation and working on things as a writer from early on. You have to do things to entertain yourself, and it’s something you really learn to enjoy.”
With the perspective of a small-town boy still in his mind, Ritter moved across the country to Boston — a bigger city to be sure, but still hardly the music capital of America.
“I took a look around and I saw Nashville and New York and L.A.,” he says, “and I’ve visited New York, and it just didn’t seem right to me. I didn’t feel like anybody there toured, it just seemed like everyone was trying to make it in New York. Boston seemed like a place I could do my music and get an audience; it just felt more accessible to me.”
An audience is what he found, despite being in a city known more for its sports teams than its music scene. Among his fans were Irish band The Frames, who scooped him up and made him their supporting act on a tour of their home country, where Ritter cultivated his first real following. Soon after, his blend of passionate and politically tinged folk songs began to be noticed worldwide.
Although political songwriting is part of his repertoire, it’s not his main focus, and doesn’t represent the diversity of his songs. Ritter wants to be known as anything but a political artist and doesn’t seek to be a spokesman in his songs.
“I don’t think songwriters are political scientists,” he explains. “I think that science or art or politics are all social things that come out of a social need, but I don’t believe that just because you have a microphone that your opinion matters more than anyone else’s.
“I have a problem with political songs in general,” he continues. “I don’t like anthems. I think they’re boring — they’re always in black-and-white, and they don’t last. They’re not real art to me and they’re not interesting. They’re easy.”
Ritter’s new album, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, veers purposefully away from the serious tone of his other work, leaning on more frenetic, playful arrangements. He is careful, though, not to discount the importance of his previous albums.
“I’ve loved making all these records,” he says, “but the satisfaction you get out of making each of them is kind of different. With Animal Years, there was the satisfaction of finding a way to talk about politics and music and religion in a way that I felt comfortable with. On Historical Conquests, it was about writing a song that didn’t talk about any of that stuff, or if it did, it was only a glancing reference. I wanted some of the songs to be funny, and some of them to be kind of blowhard, big songs. That’s why I called it Historical Conquests. I just thought it was the biggest, silliest title I could have. I crack myself up.”
Ritter’s profile is high enough now that he is coming through Canada as a headliner for the first time with a full band, including a stop at the Knox United Church on February 26. Still, he doesn’t let his recent popularity and critical acclaim go to his head — even when the press makes some lofty comparisons.
“Everyone who writes a song eventually gets compared to Bob Dylan,” he laughs.
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