MUSIC REVIEWS
JOSH RITTER’S THE ANIMAL YEARS

Josh Ritter’s new CD, The Animal Years, was released in late March and has received positive reviews from music critics. The Animal Years is Ritter’s fourth CD, but it is the first to be released on a major label (V2 ADA). The Animal Years features 11 cuts including the album’s centerpiece, a fire-and-brimstone song called “Thin Blue Flame.” This cut is a slow building nearly 10-minute long epic about a personal visionary apocalyptical dream of such accompanied by a simple two-chord motif.

Many of Ritter’s songs on The Animal Years are full of wolves. Ritter noted in an interview on NPR that the wolves were symbolic of the evil and threat in the world. He said, “The wolf in this record was my reminder to myself that down the path of total conviction you end up just like any other animal that runs in a pack, and that's not a place I would like to go.” The second song on the CD, “Wolves,” is set to an upbeat melody, but the lyrics are dreamlike and place wolves all around a couple as they are dancing in a mystic place. Another song that has garnered attention is “Girl In The War,” the opening cut on the CD. “Girl In The War” is also set to an upbeat melody and begins: “Peter said to Paul, ‘You know all those words we wrote, are just the rules of the game and rules are the first to go.’ Now talking to God is Laurel begging Hardy for a gun; I got a girl in the war man I wonder what it is we've done.”

Perhaps the most moving song on the CD is the simply arranged, yet emotional, “Idaho.” In this ballad, Ritter sings about his home state:

Something else was on my mind
The only ghost I'm haunted by
I hear her howling down below
Idaho, oh Idaho.

Wolves, oh wolves, oh can't you see?
Ain't no wolf can sing like me
And if it could, then I suppose
She belongs in Idaho.

Much of the credit for this CD has been given to producer Brian Deck, who's helped many artists find their voice. Deck gives Ritter a unique sound: a gentle mandolin, an ominous piano, a swirling organ, and formative drumbeats when they are needed, but he never hides the simplicity of Ritter’s message. The listener could almost feel as though they were listening to a young Bob Dylan or an unplugged Bruce Springsteen.

Ritter is backed by Zach Hickman on bass and mandolin, Sam Kassirer on keyboards, Tim Bradshaw on guitar, and Dave Hingerty on drums and percussion on The Animal Years.

Two of Josh Ritter’s earlier CD’s, Hello Starling and The Golden Days Of Radio, are available through several online music stores. However, music critics agree that The Animal Years is Ritter’s best work to date and could prove to be his breakthrough CD. If you love folk music, this CD should be in your collection.

Another great CD released earlier this year is All The Roadrunning by Mark Knopfler and Emmlylou Harris. This 12 cut CD was recorded over the last seven years by stealing “a few precious hours of studio time here and there,” according to Mark Knopfler the ex- singer and guitarist of Dire Straits. Mark Knopfler contributes ten songs to the CD while Harris contributes two. Interesting cuts on the CD include the opening song “Beachcombing,” “I Dug Up A Diamond,” the country sounding “Red Staggerwing,” and Harris’ two songs, “Love and Happiness,” and “Belle Starr.” While critics maintain that the CD lacks form and structure, All The Roadrunning may be a good CD just for that. A good collection of tunes laid down by friends over a time without a heavy agenda or statement. The CD features good vocals, and Knopfler’s classic style of guitar. It is a little risky so listen to a few cuts before you buy it.

Ready for a little protest music? As the War in Iraq continues, several artists have spoken out against the war and President Bush. The Dixie Chicks made several anti-war/anti-Bush statements early in the war and suffered greatly for it in country music’s homeland of middle America. The Chicks are back now, unrepentant with Taking The Long Way. In two songs, “Not Ready To Make Nice” and “The Long Way Around,” the Chicks make it clear that they have not forgotten or forgiven all the people that told them to ‘kiss their ass.’ They also make it clear they have not changed their attitude toward the war or President Bush.

A little more adversarial is Neil Young’s latest CD Living With War. In Living With War Neil Young does not break any new ground musically, but he does deliver a broadside of criticism against the Bush administration and the War in Iraq. Songs such as the title cut “Living With War,” “The Restless Consumer,” “Shock And Awe,” and “Let’s Impeach The President” express Young’s discontent and disillusion with America’s political leadership and consumer society that have created a war that is divisive and deadly both at home and in Iraq. What began in 1970 with the song “Ohio” continues on the CD Living With War. It ain’t Prairie Wind or Harvest Moon, but it is a CD for today if you feel the United States has done all it can with the War in Iraq.