American singer pens lyrical prose
KNOWN as a singer-songwriter, American Josh Ritter released his debut novel, Bright’s Passage, in the US in 2011 to acclaim. The book is now being released here. Ritter’s popularity in Ireland was a springboard for his musical success. Born in Moscow, Idaho — the son of neuroscientists — he began playing music aged 18, inspired by singers like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. He released his debut, self-titled album in 1999 and was spotted by Irish band The Frames, who invited him back to Ireland. Once here, his melodic, erudite songs found a ready audience. Since 2000, he has released six albums and has received consistent praise. He is on the boundary of mainstream success. Ritter has turned to prose. It feel a natural transition. “I suppose you start writing songs because that is what draws you in,” he says. “I think you have to keep changing or you end up getting trapped in a particular box. I have seen it happen to a lot of artists; in that sense, it was something new that I needed for myself.”
Ritter’s love of words shines through his music and his novel. The book is the tale of Henry Bright, who returns from the horrors or World War One to west Virginia to look after his young son after his wife has died. Accompanied by his son, an angel in the form of a horse and the ghost of his dead wife’s father, and haunted by the war, he travels a landscape devastated by fire. Witty and sardonic, the novel is powerful and disturbing. Ritter luxuriates in the complexities of the English language; this is a singer who used a line from Hamlet to name his sixth album, So Runs the World Away. Yet he effectively communicate his ideas.
