When Studio One caught up with Josh Ritter back in November, it was at the end of a stretch where he and the Royal City Band (his backing band) had played nine shows in ten days. The next day was his daughter’s birthday, so he was getting ready to fly back home for a couple of days before heading back out for another week’s worth of shows.
“I don't miss birthdays, and it's going to be a rager,” said Ritter. “She's turning 13.”
After playing lots of shows with more to come, and a big celebration in the middle of it all, you might be able to understand if Ritter didn't perform at the top of his game that night at Hoyt Sherman place (which was also the first really cold night of the year). But not only did he and the band deliver a top-notch performance, he made everyone around him feel like there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.
“After two weeks, you’ve got to be able to feel every night like it's your last,” said Ritter.
I’ve heard this before from other artists who head out for two or three weeks at a time, and when I asked another question about his touring schedule, I got a response that can only be described as “classic Josh Ritter.”
"Music is agricultural in a sense. You can only harvest every so often, but you got to go out in the fields and harvest,” said Ritter. "For a bunch of guys with kids and all that, two weeks is the absolute maximum at any one time, and then we come home and spend time [with our families]. You can't overtax a system like that, because it's not about making music over anything else in your life. The music is part of it, and it's joyful, and it has its own place for that specific amount of time. So for that reason, I make sure to keep it at two weeks, and then I go home, get a rest, and then I go back out again.”
In addition to plenty of long-time favorite songs from Ritter’s extensive discography, he also played almost all of the songs from his newest record, I Believe In You, My Honeydew, which was my favorite album of 2025. Many artists, when writing songs or creating any kind of art, will follow what they call their “muse.” Ritter decided to do something a little different this time around: he addressed the album to his muse, which he named “Honeydew.”
"In Western culture now, we tend to think of a muse as somebody that we follow, and we aspire towards them,” said Ritter. “But in the ancient Greek variety of muse, you invoke a muse that comes in and inhabits your body, and you become invisible. You are the vessel of the muse, and that is much more of a relationship that I feel syncs up with what I do. I don't think I've followed anybody aspirationally ... except some girlfriends to some cities that maybe I shouldn't have moved to ... but the muse always comes to where I am.”
The album’s title track, “Honeydew (No Light),” is not only a standout track, it hit especially well on a cold November night, with its spare arrangements and the depiction of “dark days (that) lead to dark nights." Ritter had something else in mind when writing this one.
“I've always really loved those outlaw ballads, whether it's the ancient ones, like Robin Hood or Pretty Boy Floyd, or any of these songs that are about like a kind of folk hero,” said Ritter. “My dad recently moved to northern Minnesota, so I spent a lot of time soaking up the landscape and the towns going by. It was fun to write, and also fun to write one about sort of a brutally cold snap of weather and somebody helping the needy.”
Although Ritter has lived in New York for 15 years, he grew up in Idaho, which I have never visited. I have, however, lived in Iowa my entire life, and there’s an unmistakable sound of “the plains” in Ritter's music.
“That's the best part about songs, is that what comes out is never what you think is going to come out,” said Ritter. “And you can't ever run away from yourself. I'm so proud that you can hear Idaho in there because that's under there all the time. And I feel like I draw on it sometimes without even knowing.”
In addition to his 13 albums, Ritter has written and published two novels and is writing another. He also has some new songs, but stopped short of saying he’s working on a new record.
“Songs never come in any kind of batch, they just come as songs,” he said. “I can tell right now that the well is filling, but that it's not quite full yet.” Again, classic Ritter.
Josh Ritter’s music is available at Bandcamp and streaming services, but as always, check your local record store first.
