Josh Ritter is one of the bigger names in the indie folk scene, drawing a high level of clout amongst the fans. Just last week, he released his 8th studio record, Sermon on the Rocks taking a departure from his folk roots toward a more experimental style.
The album opens up with “Birds of the Meadow” a new look on the blues. The instrumental aspect of the track sounds like it could be something off of a black keys record, vocally though, we get a taste of something a little different from Ritter. The first minute and a half of the song is a sort of low tone talk singing, we don’t get a real taste of his voice until half way in. From the get go we’re given an entirely new way to experience Ritter’s music.
Track two sounds a bit more familiar, with a 21st century take on a 50’s style Rockabilly beat and the usual cadences of Ritter’s vocals. The trend continues into the next track where we get some slightly folksier material, particularly thematically. In it, Ritter tells the story of a small midwestern town man and his relationships with the town-folk, family, and religion, what says Americana more than that?
There are points on the album where if I close my eyes I wouldn’t even recognize that Josh Ritter was playing. Track 5, “Seeing Me ‘Round” sounds more like a 1980s Elvis Costello than the singer of “Best For The Best.” There were moments during the album where I had hoped we would hear less of the talk-singing and more of the voice I have come to know and love. However, the new direction works in a strange way. What we have come to know about folk music is that it grounds us in the past and teaches us lessons for the future, in songs like “Seeing Me ‘Round” we get a look at a sort of musical dystopian future, with sparse electronic sounds interjecting over a drum beat. It is just such a new direction from Ritter that it took me three or four listens before I finally began to wrap my head around it in a way that made sense to me. What we can take away from this is that the group has moved in a direction of added complexity in their sound.
My personal favorite from the album is track 7, “Cumberland.” It sounds like it could come right off of Paul Simon’s Graceland, no easy feat since, in my opinion, that is one of the greatest albums of all time. This track sounds like they had fun laying it down and every now and then its nice to hear a good time in a song.
The album closes on an eye opening note. It is as if you took a classic country and western song and put it through a broken time machine. What you get out is a strange mixture of post modern blues and that old time classic sound. If it weren’t for “Cumberland,” the final track “My Man On A Horse (Is Here)” would be my favorite on the record, it’s just a damn interesting listen.
Overall Sermon on the Rocks makes you think. It is a total change of pace for Ritter, who has studied American music and carved out his own place in its legacy. That said, this more cerebral artistic direction is a good fit for the group. The songs have just enough of his roots as to not render the music unrecognizable but enough of a change to show a significant artistic growth.
-Ryan Schmitz
