Josh Ritter

Roll On hats are in hand and ready to ship in time for the holidays! These turned out awesome. Order yours here: joshritter.merchtable.com

Hey All! I’m proud to be joining this awesome line up in celebrating the Music of Van Morrison at Carnegie Hall! musicof.org

Wow! A lot can happen in a year! Thank you all for making my music a part of your soundtrack! Here's looking forward to an amazing 2019. Rock!

More Anthology collection merch unboxing! Love all these designs by Matthew Fleming. Shop here: joshritter.merchtable.com

Hello Starling woven blanket unboxing! Get yours here: joshritter.merchtable.com We'll have a few of these at the merch table at this weekend's shows, too.

I’m so happy with how the new Anthology tees turned out! I hope you like them! Order yours here: joshritter.merchtable.com

Earlier this year, we asked our longtime friend + illustrator Matthew Fleming to create some new, limited-edition merch designs inspired by each studio album. He started with Golden Age of Radio and Hello Starling, and we're launching those merch collections TODAY in the store. So stoked on these! Thanks again to Matt for the awesome work here and hope you guys dig! joshritter.merchtable.com

Coming Monday in the merch store...

New merch coming Monday...

Get out and vote! Post a photo in the comments of your ‘I Voted’ sticker and we’ll pick someone to get a pair of tickets to a show of their choosing next year.

Annapolis! I’m really excited to be adding a second solo show at Rams Head On Stage on Dec 4! Tickets available here: found.ee/JR-Annapolis-Night2 📸: Sam Kassirer

Happy Halloween! Here’s the amazing video of The Curse created by the multi-talented Liam Hurley!

I’ve been playing a new song recently that a lot of folks have been asking about. It’s called “All Some Kind of Dream.” I’ve always avoided writing overtly political songs in the past, but recently I’ve been so enraged I didn’t know what else to do. I recorded this version of it with Josh Kaufman in Brooklyn. Thank you for listening and please vote in November. - Josh The Small Town Solo Tour starts October 4th: www.joshritter.com/#shows Lyrics: I saw my brother in a stranger’s face I saw my sister in a smile My mother’s laughter in a far off place My father’s footsteps in each mile I thought I knew who my neighbor was We didn’t need to be redeemed Oh, what could I have been thinking of Was it all some kind of dream? I saw my country in the hungry eyes Of a million refugees Between the rocks and the rising tide As they were tossed across the sea There was a time when we were them Just as now they all are we Was there a time when we took them in Or was it all some kind of dream? I saw the children in the holding pens I saw the families ripped apart And though I try I cannot begin To know what it did inside their hearts Was there a time when we held them close And weren’t so cruel low and mean And we did good unto the least of those Or was it all some kind of dream? I saw justice with a tattered hem I saw compassion on the run But I saw dignity in spite of them I prayed its day would finally come There was a time when we chose our sides And we refused to live between We rose to fight for what we knew was right Or was it all some kind of dream? Last night I lay in my true love’s bed And she lay there close beside And we lay thinking ‘bout what lay ahead And wondering if the sun would rise For it seems that these are darker days Than any others that I’ve seen Oh, how we wished that we weren’t wide awake And this was all some kind of dream?

Clearance sale in the merch store! $5 CDs & posters, $10 tees, $25 sweatshirts while they last. joshritter.merchtable.com

Our performances of “Homecoming” and “Getting Ready to Get Down” from WXPN’s XPoNential Music Festival are now online to watch: found.ee/joshritter_live

Working on my new record in Nashville, with Jason Isbell producing! 📸: Gena Johnson

Bright's Passage turns 7 years old today! You can hear me read the novel's first chapter here: found.ee/BrightsPassage

In 2015, Paste Magazine enlisted the help of the talented S.M. Vidaurri to illustrate "Henrietta, Indiana." Two and a half years later, it's still just as cool. Revisit it below!

Very excited to announce that I'll be setting sail next year with Cayamo! Join us as we head to Jamaica and Mexico from February 10-17. Sign up for presale tickets here: found.ee/JR-Cayamo

A look back: take a peek into the making of Sermon On The Rocks, circa 2015.

Moxie ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ St. Paul, Minnesota (one day before) I am on stage. The show is going well. The audience is one of those shouty, fun ones that doesn’t like sitting down. I love them for it. The band is playing good and loud. I am surprised at how easily my spinning mind has set aside other thoughts to allow me to concentrate on the songs. They are flying by me now, each one with its own personality, each with its own needs. I need to remember during one to keep the tempo down, and another needs just a bit more energy during the bridge. Little things, but they keep my mind occupied and fully engaged in the show, which is really the only way to play a show. It’s the last night of the tour. Belongings have been gathered and packed from around the bus. We’ve all talked about what a great set of shows these have been. Some of us will have to leave right after the show, so some goodbyes have already been said. We are halfway through the concert when the power of what is about to happen to me hits me square in the chest. I feel the force of it like a wrecking ball made of laughter and tears. It is sweet and scary and wonderful and terrifying all at the same time. During Zack’s bass solo, I take a deep breath and hold it. I’m not going home tomorrow. I won’t be going home for awhile. I’m on my way to meet my new daughter. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Portland, Oregon (five days before) I’m not needed at the venue until three, so Haley and I have rented a car to take Bea, our five-year old, to see a waterfall. After the waterfall, we find a place for lunch, and just as the waiter is bringing our food, I get a call on my phone. "How are you, Josh? Is Haley there with you?" I know right away what this is. The world gets very small. Yes, she’s here with me. A little girl has just been born. Her birth mother has chosen our adoption profile. I look at Haley. We’ve been waiting for this moment a long time. We began talking about it on our first date. At the time, I knew very little about it, but I fell in love with Haley instantly and she had wanted to adopt her whole life. We decided it would be a part of our future. Then we had Bea and went on the road together for four years. When we began to want to have another little kid around, we both knew that it was time. We researched our options and decided to speak with Wide Horizons For Children, an amazing adoption organization operating in the Northeast. We filled out a lot of paperwork, had some meetings, attended some classes and did a lot of dreaming. As part of the process we made a profile of our family that spoke about who we were and what we believed. We included photos, of Bea berry picking or dancing around during soundcheck, of grandparents and cousins and friends. We submitted the profile to Wide Horizons and waited. Now, after two years, could we fly across the country and come to the hospital as soon as possible? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Seattle, Washington (4 days before) Haley and Bea and I are waiting for a break in the traffic so that we can drag their bags to the waiting car. It’s been a crazy day. As soon as we heard the news we went straight back to the venue to share it with the band. Everyone has been walking on cloud nine since. I feel so lucky to be able to spend my life on the road with friends that have become family. To be able to share this moment with them is especially sweet. The bus arrived in town from Portland before dawn, and we’ve been up, planning travel with my tour manager Katie and our band travel agent, Joan, packing bags and dealing with last minute adoption details. We’ve decided that Haley and Bea will travel to meet the baby, and that I will travel to meet them in a week, after the run of shows is done. We jam the bags into the back of the taxi and Haley and Bea get in. Haley and I look at each other, almost in disbelief. What we had talked about all those years ago is about to happen. After they leave I feel aimless. I walk down the street and buy a cup of coffee that I don’t even want. I go into a couple stores, drifting. I try to imagine myself as a father of a newborn again. What have I forgotten about that time? What will I learn? Will I be able to handle it? And what about Haley and Bea? Where are they now? Have they gotten to the airport alright? Where have their own thoughts taken them? All of the questions lead to more questions and soon it’s time for me to head in to the venue and get ready for the show. Back with the band, it’s time to get to work. As happy and excited as everyone is, the trick is now to channel that energy on stage, and to do that we have to be focused on the show at hand. So even though my life - all of our lives - have shifted, we stand in our usual huddle, talking through the songs to come, and as we do I start to calm down. Just as each song will lead on to the next, each day will open on a new one. There will be challenges, but we’re up to them. Decisions will be made, and we will be ready to make them. Through the doors I can hear the crowd. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Some Somewhere (Day of) Haley and Bea have picked me up at the airport in a rental car. For the next little while we will be living out of a motel near the hospital where Moxie is. I’m feeling shocked and bleary from lack of sleep, but so happy to be back with my family again. While we drive, Haley tells me about the last several days, about meeting Moxie for the first time, about the amazing nurses and doctors, social workers and motel front-deskers that have pulled together into an informal community around our family and its newest member. The drive takes us down the interstate, through fields of fast food restaurants, truck stops, billboards for caves and family-owned petting zoos. The sun is warm on the hood of the car, and we roll the windows down, feeling the Southern air on our faces as we drive. At a stop to get something to eat, Haley tells me about meeting Moxie’s birth mother, about standing over Moxie’s bed there in the NICU with her. The two had stood arm in arm over the bed telling her that both of her mothers were in the room with her, that she was loved and welcomed by the World. I am in the NICU myself. I am washing my hands and arms. The nurse asks me if I am ready to meet my daughter. I nod. It’s all I can do. She pulls up a chair and tells me to sit. Then she lifts the sheet in front of her incubator and carefully lifts Moxie out. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ She She is so small that “small” stops working as a word. She fits in the hollow of my hand. She breathes quickly, from a spot just beneath her ribcage. She is so pale that she is almost translucent. She opens eyes that shift in color from blue to hazel to brown and back. She closes them again and sleeps with a fierce determination, plunging into it like a pearl diver into the sea. She is… I look up and through the glass that separates me from Haley and Bea. They are smiling hard. We are all smiling. There are no tears, just a great welling in my chest. I find myself again taking a deep, deep breath and holding it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The Caves The next day, Bea and I drop off Haley at the NICU so she can hold Moxie, and, because only one person is allowed in with Moxie at a time, the two of us head out of town to go on a cave exploration tour at one of the nearby caverns. The morning is cold and rainy. When we get to the caverns, I buy two tickets and we wait with a group of people for our guide, who turns out to be a local teenager. We all gather beneath the teeth of a rockfall that occurred sometime in the last five thousand years. A path leads down into the rock face, and a door keeps the caverns beyond hermetically sealed from the outside world. I think about the explorers who first found the cave, and I think about Moxie. Bea and I walk through the doors and into a long, dimly lit hallway. Ahead of us, the voices of our tour group ricochet against the walls until they finally bounce free and into an enormous, vaulted space, festooned with stalagmites and stalactites, watered by an underground river. What wonders lie beneath the surface of everything. What whole new worlds exist just beyond our imagining. When we are lucky and brave and heedless and plunge ahead, we can find ourselves in extraordinary new places. Lost in the moment, temporarily out of my equilibrium, it takes me a moment to realize that Bea has taken my hand. “Dad, you don’t need to hold your breath.”

We had a great, great time on this tour. Thank you so much for being a part of it. I love what I do and this stuff is a dream come true. 📸: Patrick Glennon

All my love to Frightened Rabbit. Scott was an amazing, sweet man and a powerful musician who always had a kind word. I feel so lucky to have known him.

I’m thrilled to be a part of Articulate’s third season! You can watch the episode below!

Happy birthday to So Runs the World Away! Here's a look back at the amazing puppet video for "The Curse," created by our own Liam Hurley: