In-Studio Performance: Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter, who has been dubbed one of the :100 Greatest Living Songwriters" popped into the WUMB air studio on October 14th to chat with Dave Palmater about his new album Sermon On The Rocks. He strictly played tracks from the record, including "Where The Night Goes", "Young Moses" and "Cumberland", in anticipation of it's October 16th release.

Sermon On The Rocks is much more lighthearted, fun and carefree than his previous releases. Describing the departure from his previous style Ritter says that he "realized that [he] didn't have to take things so seriously all the time".He feels that he is at a point in his career where he could start to keep all of his music sounding the same, but that was something he was afraid of. So he chose to experiment with his sounds instead and have the opinion of, "this song [may not] really be me but I'm going to finish it and maybe it will become something".

Ritter recorded the album in New Orleans and co-produced it with Trina Shoemaker who has worked with artists from Emmylou Harris to Queens of The Stone Age. He chose to record the Sermon On The Rocks in New Orleans because it was a place he had passed through on tour and wanted to stay. He rented a big house and brought his family and friends along with him, wanting to reflect New Orleans Culture, "Wanting to live in the bloodstream for a little while.

Dave asked Ritter which song from the  he would choose to play if only asked to play one. The album has strong themes of Autumn and heading back to where you came from, and for that reason he chose to close out the interview with "Homecoming". Josh Ritter is playing a sold-out show at The Sinclair tonight but he will be back in Boston this winter.

-Kendall Stewart

In-Studio Performance: Joe Pug

Singer-songwriter Joe Pug dropped by the station on April 30th, ten days after his 31st birthday and just a few weeks after the release of his third album, Windfall. Pug had visited the station previously while promoting 2012's The Great Despiser, a tour that nearly burnt him out on making music altogether. After kicking the session off with "Bright Beginnings", the first track from the new record, he went into detail about how he almost quit music entirely. He had been touring non-stop and by the end of the tour he was "really low on [him]self, low on music" and wanted to take a step  back in order to gain perspective as he "needed to have joy while making music". (Though let's not forget his gorgeous rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Downbound Train" on Dead Man's Town A Tribute To Born In The USA from 2014.)

"If Still It Can't Be Windfall the whole way through.
Found"was the second tune he played, which he wrote on an out-of-tune piano he found on Craig's List. He found a section of the site dedicated to people with pianos they are trying to get rid of--if someone can get it out of their house then it's theirs. The track is particularly powerful and Pug strategically placed it last on the album. "People don't listen to full albums anymore", and he wanted to make sure people listened to

Windfall was recorded at Shangri-La studios, with a simpler approach to songwriting and recording than Pug's previous efforts. He also cites more contemporary influences on this album as well--M. Ward, Josh Ritter and Ryan Adams among others, and finishing out the performance with "Burn And Shine".

Joe Pug will be supporting Brandon Flowers in the UK next month, as well as performing at the Green River Festival on July 12th, and Newport Folk on July 25th (Friday). More information can be found at JoePugMusic.com.