Whether you are celebrating 300 years or 13 years, there can be few better ways to kick off the festivities than the sounds of Josh Ritter, a songwriter at the top of his game.
And so this year’s Smithwick’s Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots festival promises to be anything but unlucky as Ritter and his band get proceedings under way in the Ormonde Hotel tonight (Friday ) at 8pm. Tickets have sold well but you might sneak a ticket even at this late stage, and it would be €30 well spent.
The choice of Ritter as headline for this year’s festival may have raised a few eyebrows in certain quarters, given the high profile he already enjoys in Ireland’s popular music circles. We have been spoilt watching him develop from a talented acoustic songwriter to a genuine name to carry the torch lit by Dylan, Simon, Young and the likes.
Ritter stands as the perfect articulation of the folk tradition in the modern era, his songs heavily influenced by a catalogue of composers and lyricists and resplendent with imagery and allegory. Unsurprising given his grounding as a student of American history through narrative folk music. But instead of being defined by a genre, like all the greatest artists he redefines his craft, pushing forward in a constant search for innovation and its reward.
The Moscow, Idaho, native found his feet as a respected songwriter in folk circles in the US, but it was the release of his sophomore album Golden Age of Radio which steadily garnered rising praise and saw him increasingly compared to the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
This was particularly true in Ireland, where a close working relationship with Glen Hansard and The Frames saw him quickly integrated into a budding musical fraternity which included the likes of The Frames, Paddy Casey, Damien Rice and Mundy. His word-of-mouth success meant it was at times a surprise to learn that he was not Irish, although that fact was clearly evident in the subject matter of songs like ‘Me & Jiggs’ and ‘Lawrence KS’.
Golden Age of Radio and subsequent albums were stacked with imagery of his native Idaho and littered with American literary references. The song ‘Idaho’ on his third album, The Animal Years, was a particularly memorable and haunting yearning for his home state.
“I thought that I was on a boat, until that single word you wrote. That single word it landlocked me. Turned the mast to cedar trees, and the wind to gravel roads. Idaho, oh Idaho.”
Ritter’s appearance at this year’s festival is well-timed to coincide with a mini Irish tour to support the release of his latest album, So Runs The World Away, his fifth studio effort. The album was released last Friday in Ireland and early indications are that he continues to push the boundaries of his craft, despite rumoured battles with writer’s block.
The album was recorded over 15 months in Maine and continues Ritter’s long-time collaboration with producer and keyboard player Sam Kassirer, and features the return of his core lineup of touring bandmates; Zack Hickman, Austin Nevins, and Liam Hurley.
“I think of the songs on So Runs the Word Away like pictures painted in oil on large canvasses,” he says of the project. “It’s a record preoccupied with the extremes of scale, from infinitesimal particles to the nearly incomprehensible distances between the head of a pin and a nebula. Where the songs felt large to me, I wanted them to be huge, both musically and lyrically. I wanted them to feel like the steel hulls of massive ships sliding by deeply from below.
“Where they were small, I concentrated in on the smallest details that I could and we tried to make the music and the words work together. I love writing and this is the most fulfilling record I’ve yet written.”
Rhythm and Roots festival director John Cleere fondly remembered watching a young Josh Ritter grace the stage in Cleere’s theatre in support of The Frames and wondered who from this year’s lineup could similarly grab the initiative and make a name for himself on the world stage.
The festival has caught its fair share of artists on the up before they made the final leap to general adoration. Names like Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne spring to mind.
Josh Ritter sits fittingly at the head of the bill for a festival that has delivered some of the finest live Americana, roots, blues, and folk music on offer to a small Irish city that never had the right to expect it.
And there will be no shortage of songwriters in this year’s lineup casting an admiring eye at Ritter on what is practically home turf and hoping to emulate the respect he now seems to command.
Prime among them, perhaps, Joe Pug. The Chicago singer-songwriter supports Ritter on the rest of his Irish tour and a number of later American dates too. He will play three dates in Kilkenny this weekend, Cleere’s at 2pm on Saturday, followed by a 6pm slot in Ryan’s on Sunday and an 8pm gig in the Clubhouse Hotel the same night.
The festival has unfortunately seen one cancellation with Chris Smither having to pull out due to illness. The veteran New Orleans acoustic bluesman would have been a real treat but some other genuine rising talents to keep an eye out for are The Duke and The King, Caitlin Rose, Jason Isbell, Band of Heathens and Irish man James Vincent McMorrow.
These and other pay-in gigs will be supplemented by a mouthwatering 60 free gigs over the extended weekend. For full details visit the website at www.kilkennyroots.com or contact the box office on (056 ) 7763669.
