CONCERT REVIEW: Top 5 Things You Should Know About Josh Ritter At The TLA Last Night

1) No one has ever been happier about playing in his own band. From the moment he literally bounces onstage, Josh Ritter is positively ebullient, grinning ear to ear like he can’t believe he stumbled into this group of musicians. He prances around the stage, his odd brown ’fro and unbuttoned collared shirt looking slightly familiar, though you can’t quite place why or where. 2) Sure, he digs into his catalog, but it’s mostly a night for new songs. Ritter just finished recording his latest album, due sometime around April, so he presents them mostly in their young form. “These […]

TICKET GIVEAWAY: A Man Called Josh

UPDATE: Phawker has two tickets to give away to the first reader to email us at feed@phawker.com. Please include a daytime phone number. Good luck! Five and a half years ago, before he was the darling of NPR, Josh Ritter walked onstage as opener to Erin McKeown at the TLA, and he did it unplugged. Not just acoustic, but completely unelectrified—so the always-rowdy bar crowd was miraculously hushed into silence to hear Ritter’s uncommonly beautiful Americana. From there, the room was hooked, many of them learning his soft lyrical twists and plaintive melodies for the first time. Since then, thousands […]