Tickets on sale to the public Friday, May 12th at 10am!

Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band

“Josh Ritter remains at the top of his game two decades  into a highlight-strewn career. He’d be forgiven for  loosening his grip, but his hand has never felt surer.” 
                                                                                                            – NPR Music

“Harking back to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and  maybe a little Mark Knopfler, Mr. Ritter has always been  a slinger of serious ideas and high-flown imagery.” 
                                                                                                            – The New York Times

“Mysterious, melancholy, melodic…and those are only the M’s.”
                                                                        — Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly

Renowned singer, songwriter, musician, artist and best-selling author Josh Ritter will release his anticipated new album, Spectral Lines, April 28 via Thirty Tigers.

One of today’s most thoughtful and prolific voices, Ritter has released ten studio albums including 2019’s widely acclaimed, Fever Breaks, of which NPR Music praised, “He remains a hydrant of ideas while embodying an endless capacity for empathy and indignation, often within a single song.”

In addition to his work as a musician, Ritter is also a national best-selling author, having released two novels to date: 2021’s The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All and 2011’s Bright’s Passage. Released to critical attention, Stephen King wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Bright’s Passage “shines with a compressed lyricism that recalls Ray Bradbury in his prime…This is the work of a gifted novelist.” 

About the new album Spectral Lines (out 4/29):

Josh Ritter has been thinking a lot about space exploration. It has nothing to do with his spellbinding new album, Spectral Lines, except that in a way, it really does.

“The Voyager spacecraft went up in ’77 and now it’s out there in a place that no one’s ever been before, and it’s sending back all these messages,” Ritter says. “I feel like songs do that in their own little way. They’re probes: they go out into the world, and sometimes you hear stories back from them, but really, they go off on their own.”

Ritter, too, is sending back messages, in the form of 10 new songs that are atmospheric and impressionistic. Like the recently launched Webb Telescope, or Voyager all those years ago, he’s looking for signs of life, reaching for a sense of commonality, something that feels universal in this infinite universe. Spectral Lines, his 11th album, finds those shared experiences in songs that push beyond the bounds of Ritter’s previous work. Recorded with longtime collaborator Sam Kassirer producing, it’s an album full of wonder and light as Ritter considers the ideas of love, devotion and what it means to be connected, to each other and to ourselves.

An Evening with Josh Ritter

“A Book of Gold Thrown Open” Tour

A note about this tour, from Josh:

“I was thinking back to some of my favorite concerts over the years, and I realized how many took place in spaces that were special in their own right. Cathedrals, synagogues, strange and storied theaters, each bring a special kind of glow to the performance.

I was also feeling the urge to play some of my quieter, more narrative songs that I may not always get the chance to perform during larger rock shows.

So I decided to put together a tour that would allow me to play these songs, and some new ones that I’ve been writing, in some of these beautiful spaces. I decided to call the tour “A Book of Gold Thrown Open.”

I’ll mainly be solo, but it’ll be a fun chance to have a few special guests and accompaniment.  And most of all, I’m looking forward to singing these songs.

I hope you can make it!  Rock on, and thank you.

– Josh”

Critical praise for Josh Ritter:

“Harking back to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and maybe a little Mark Knopfler, Mr. Ritter has always been a slinger of serious ideas and high-flown imagery.”  – The New York Times

“Josh Ritter remains at the top of his game two decades into a highlight-strewn career. He’d be forgiven for loosening his grip, but his hand has never felt surer.”  – NPR Music

“If you love music and have a device on which to play it, you should listen to Josh Ritter whenever you need sound.”—Mary-Louise Parker in Esquire

“Mysterious, melancholy, melodic…and those are only the M’s.”—Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly

“There have been plenty of highlights in Ritter’s nearly 20-year recording career.”  – AP

“Josh Ritter is sharper than ever.” – Salon

“100 Greatest Living Songwriters”  – Paste

Josh Ritter’s acclaimed 20-year career as a songwriter and musician reaches new heights with the release of his ninth full-length album, Gathering.  Along with his loyal bandmates, the Royal City Band, Josh returned to the studio with more songs than he’d ever had before at one time.

Re-energized after a recent collaboration with legendary musician Bob Weir (who also contributes vocals and guitar to a song on Gathering) and –at the same time — tired of living in the shadow of his earlier self, Josh felt charged with exploring the possibility of cutting himself loose from his own and others’ expectations.

In his words, “I began with an exciting sense of dissatisfaction, and what emerged, as I began to find my voice, was a record full of storms. I still can’t tell what era these stories are from. They feel part roustabout, part psalm to me.”

A songwriter, a musician, a New York Times best-selling author, a painter, a consummate performer. Josh Ritter encompasses all of these descriptors and more. He is a true artist. One who is not afraid of growing, changing and constantly challenging earlier versions of himself.

Here, two decades into his storied career, Josh Ritter is just getting started.

Gathering is out on 22nd September.