Josh Ritter
Last night's gig was Josh Ritter downstairs at the Zodiac. To summarize - wowsers.
The support act was A Girl Called Eddy. Despite not having heard of her prior to this gig, one song seemed very familiar, although I'm not sure why since I don't think she's been on the radio. It was a pretty good performance, although it has to be said she was blown away once Josh came onstage.
Every now and then I see someone that's so good that I make comments like "you should buy his/her/their album" to a handful of people and leave it at that. Well, this time I'll be saying it to everyone who'll listen, and when Josh returns to Oxford I'll also be dragging along anyone who's in the vicinity to see him.
Quite simply, Josh Ritter is the best thing I've heard in the acoustic-guitar-singer-songwriter genre for a long time. Thea Gilmore, Beth Orton, Stephanie Dosen et al are all fantastic, don't get me wrong, but as far as I'm concerned Josh has just become the measuring stick against which all the others must be compared.
The atmosphere was incredible, despite the fact that it was far too hot - downstairs at the Zodiac clearly has a lot to learn when it comes to air-conditioning, in contrast to upstairs where sometimes I think they could do with turning it off for a while before everyone freezes - but I digress.
I'm still heavily smitten with the first Josh Ritter song I heard, "Kathleen". It's such a great lyric, romantic and innocent (and, it has to be said, very American). "All the other girls here are stars, you are the northern lights" is a line that, with hindsight, seems obvious in that you wonder why no-one else has thought of it before. I thought I liked the song before, but after seeing Josh performing it live it's gone even further up in my estimation. Plus, he really enjoys singing it, and all his other songs.
I've picked up a copy of his new album, "Hello Starling" (named after a line in a song you may have heard, "Snow Is Gone", since it's been getting quite a bit of radio play), and I suggest anyone who trusts me enough does the same. To those who don't trust me enough - visit Josh's website and download "Kathleen". I don't think it will be leaving my heavily-played list any time soon.