On Oct. 21, Josh Ritter joined tour mate Jason Isbell at Mobile’s Saenger Theater for a show presented by Huka Productions. The pair collaborated on John Prine’s “Storm Windows” during the encore, and the Mobile crowd warmly received Ritter’s set.
Ritter, touring behind his 2015 album Sermon on the Rocks, spoke with us before the show about his path. He created his own major at Ohio’s Oberlin College to study music and storytelling, and said the real hunger of a musician lives in the writing and the nightly attempt to surprise yourself on stage.
He described Sermon on the Rocks as a record that sounds unsettled, reflecting what was happening in America at the time. His studies of Scottish folk songs, he said, fed a songwriting style built on stories and fantastical situations. Paste has named him among the “100 Greatest Living Songwriters,” and he recently co-wrote songs on Bob Weir’s solo album Blue Mountain.