It’s nine thirty in the morning and we are zooming through Nebraska after an all-night ride from Minneapolis. The ground here is so flat that it’s hard to tell whether the standing water that we pass on either side is river, creek or lake. Old bales of hay seem to have been left to melt in rolls in the fields, and much of the ground is still green. We’ve been passing old Pony Express stations and countless naked cottonwood trees, and oak trees with branches are the color of bone.
Don Spitler, our bus driver, is trying to get us past North Platte before the massive thunderstorm being predicted hits. We’ll see if he makes it!
The last week has passed so quickly that looking at the tour book it seems as if the time is melting away in the same way as the hay bales. There hasn’t been a moment to sit down and write about everything that’s been happening.
In the last week we’ve played Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Lewisburg, Charleston, Chicago and Minneapolis. My days have started fairly early with a combination of radio shows, press interviews over the phone and in-stores followed by soundcheck and shows. I also try and keep up my running as much as possible, as 14 hours in a bus gets you a bit jumpy and it helps to work off the extra energy. After the show I meet with folks and then get back on the bus sometime between midnight and one. After a show it takes a while to calm down so we all usually stay up and watch a movie. It’s not incredibly rock, but then neither are we.
Outside the wind is blowing almost directly across the bus and we just passed a camel - the world’s most confused, unlucky camel. We get out at the Flying J travel plaza and the temperature is 40 degrees. The wind is one long whip and it spreads out the birds in their flocks into long sentences. They are moving across the sky so fast that mid-air collisions would be a hazard, so I guess that’s why they spread out. They look like bb’s.
Our day off this week was in Cleveland, Ohio and that meant a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
It is odd being a band in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum and not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. None of the stuff looks real and it’s hard to equate this crystalline and Windex-ed environment with the actual lifestyle of three p.m. gear load ins, the stale smell of beer, sticky floors and sweat, and the happy-tired feeling at the end of the show.
The whole place felt like a tribute to a tribute to the musical revue based on the t.v. miniseries about rock ‘n’ roll. When you take away the music, all you have is costumes, instruments and the few examples of rebellion deemed vestigial enough to show to an all-ages audience. The effect is disconcerting. As you walk through the striations of rock history, past the display cases with records, the video wall with the obligatory “rock is really about free expression” and into the shrine dedicated to the usual suspects of the ‘60s and ‘70s, you start to get the distinct feeling that you’re being encouraged to believe that the great music has all been made in the past, that the ‘60s were about funny, gentle looking people who were all geniuses, that drugs did not exist and that the real credentials by which to judge artistic achievement is having Tipper Gore dislike your music. Talk about giving the finger to The Man! In fact, the museum really felt less like any kind of tribute to music than a self-congratulatory slap on the back to the baby boom generation.
What was I expecting? Not much more than I got. It was fun seeing some of the outfits and Janis Joplin’s car. I enjoyed the photos and the angry letters from Rolling Stone editors to a perpetually behind the deadline Hunter Thompson, the exhibit on sound systems and some of the gear was pretty cool. But in the end I felt like I do when I come out of a mall - wondering what all the trappings are supposed to add up to.
The real rock halls of fame are the venues that hundreds of bands pass through each year. These places, from community halls to old vaudeville theaters to tetanus traps in big and small towns across the world are where the real histories are made. These are the places where the house sound guy is cranky, the bartenders come in early and manage to work through hundreds of soundchecks, where guest lists and attendance numbers are haggled over, where posters are hung and taken down and hung again and where people - strangers - come and hang out with each other to listen to music played in the moment by other people. I think these kinds of halls are great enough.
We’re passing over into Colorado. Tonight, Jesse Sykes will be joining me for a show at the Fox Theater in Boulder.
After that we head to Salt Lake City for a day off (and time to do some serious, serious laundry!) and then make our way to my home state for a show at the Egyptian theater in Boise.
I wish I could convey properly how exciting and gratifying these shows are. It’s just such a great time to be playing music and I want you to know how lucky the band and I feel to be playing it!
Be Well,
Josh
October 18, 2007
(Just over the border with Colorado)
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Heya, we’re in the picture at the park west! thanks for such a fantastic show, that day was one of the best i’ve ever had :) hope we see you again soon!
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I’m from Nebraska! I think I’ve met that camel.
Thank you for the beautiful scene; never thought I’d miss the plains. :)
are you related?
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Amazing set at the Showbox! And running into you at Pike Place Brewery - almost unbelievable. Just wondering if there’s a way to support your friend Kate’s benefit for those of us who can’t make the Boston show.
Continued from above. Aside from the ticket to the actual show, that was the best financial investment of the year so far; I’ve had it on repeat for hours on end since I picked it up. It would be great to have a live album of stuff from this tour as well, though. The band is absolutely incredible and even when they don’t have a horn section for Rumors it’s… (in order to not ruin the surprise for further performances) incredibly charming.
To Morgan that suggested a live album: there is an album of a live performance over two nights at Vicar Street Theater in Dublin called Josh Ritter - In the Dark. It was recorded on May 12 and 13 of 2006 (in the wake of “Animal Years” but before “Historical Conquests"). It’s released in stores in Ireland and available worldwide online via Josh’s website. I saw it on the merch table after the Park West show and absolutely HAD to buy it.
sounds like a direct duplicate of the first Meatloaf tour through the midwest. your comments on the rock and roll hall of fame are right on the button. and thats the Bottom Line (great old venue in N. Y. with a life and history of its own).
I will see you in Austin Monday. Long time coming. New music and old is awesome. You are the new music scene.
You nailed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame description. I went there a few years ago and I felt like I was in a Hard Rock Cafe. It wasn’t unpleasant, I enjoyed seeing Jimi Hendrix’s grad school report cards, but it wasn’t awesome either.
Hi Josh, I always love reading about your experiences! Also I want to wish you a Very Happy Belated Birthday! I do hope your Birthday Day was a Special Day!
Continue to travel safe and take care.
Beautiful, as always.
Take care of yourself. <3
Awesome show in Chicago Josh. What about a live record?
Hey Josh! I got to see you in Boulder last week, though I’m sorry I didn’t have time to stick around and say hi afterward, it was getting late and I live in Denver, so my group and I were an hour from home with work in the morning. Awesome show though, you guys had so much great energy, and I’ll keep a look out for confused camels. First Ohio now Colorado, I look forward to catching up with you in another corner of the country soon!
Hey Josh,
Great to hear from you again. I miss those Nebraska plains, they were once very dear to my heart and Im glad you are keeping them company. I hope everything keeps going smashingly for you and I’ll see you on Halloween!!!
Your show in Seattle was wonderful! I’m glad I got to sing ‘happy birthday’ to you. People in Seattle don’t dance, apparently. Come to Bellingham next tour and the whole room will be dancing, I promise!
I’ve never been there, but maps of Nebraska mesmerize me, like a siren’s song. So flat, so open and breathless. I imagine you could sell your soul where 83 meets 2. At least you can’t be dashed on the rocks.
You write such nice sentences. This is a pleasure to read every week. Thank you.
Nice to read from the other side of the atlantic how you are enjoying the tour. As a visitor of one of your shows over a month ago i can say that the feeling is likeiwse. Be well!
I ll see you in Carrboro on the 5th!
Josh! It was great seeing you in Cleveland! I know you loved having some folks from Oberlin’s orchestra on stage w/you - they really sounded fantastic and added to the vibe! The Temptation of Adam is my favourite!
Thanks for the up-close “River” experience...I will never forget that moment! I truly enjoy reading your blogs - they are poetic, just as you are. Enjoy the rest of your roadtrip. Stay warm, stay healthy...we love you!
Leanne :)
As always it’s great fun reading your tour blog.
I saw that Dawn Landes is doing a show with you in Paris just before the UK leg of your tour. We’re looking forward to seeing you in Glasgow; even better if you could convince Dawn to acompany you for a few gigs here in the UK. I’m sure you could twist her arm! Can’t want to hear the new album played live.
All the best.
Scott
OMG!!! I can actually see myself in the Park West Photo!!! Awesome!!!
Your show in Minneapolis was profoundly enjoyable--and you even managed to get those stoic Minnesotans on their feet by the end. Score! Thanks for swinging through the northern Midwest--stop by again anytime, and keep these blog entries comin’.
My body seems to have rebounded (as the years go faster and faster, the longer and longer it takes), but the sonic echoes in my head, (may they never leave). Fantasic show Boise/Egyptian Theatre 10/20! Thank you and the entire band! And the debut(?) of the helmets!
The show last night at Bimbos was amazing!
The vibe you filled the club with was so alive- it’s the most fun I’ve ever seen a group have on stage! The combination of jamming, trumpet & brass, mixed with the images your lyrics conjure was fun & refreshing, & sounded spectacular.
I hope you all had an incredible time in North Beach- thank you for coming! I wish you all the best in your adventures & keep being so Real onstage!
PS: Liam makes the funniest/cutest faces back there with the drums!
You are just too adorable and fun and flat out awesome...and such a clever and intelligent writer to boot. It makes it so easy to be thrilled for you and all of your success.
Enjoy the rest of the tour. Excited to see you all play again. Yay!!
Nice writing, as always. You should really write a song about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
PS: Phenomenal show in San Francisco last night!
For the past few years (up until ‘04), I had nearly given up on my belief in the power and saving grace of live music. I had seen hundreds of shows all over the country, but nothing had really moved me or managed to touch the depths of my soul.
However, a perpetually goofy-grinned historian (yourself) and an accountant-turned-rocker (Craig Finn of The Hold Steady) managed to change my mind and restore my faith in the restorative powers of Rock n’ Roll.
Who would have thought. Thanks.
Hey Josh, thank you so much for last night. I just moved to the west coast, and I’m still adjusting to leaving college and being a first year teacher. Last night was such a treat and a breath of fresh air for me. It really made me put some of my stress into perspective. It was really wonderful. Thanks again and hope to see you again sometime.
Oh and P.S. your band is AMAZING and so very nice :)
From listening to you play in our office at Virgin, to finding you on the street on La Cienega and getting you drunk before you boarded your flight, to our latest meeting in Cleveland...it has been a joy. You fill a room and hearts with such happiness. Once in LA we went and saw you at the El Rey and I was in the front row, and when you played ‘Idaho’ I layed my head on the stage and tears just happily dripped down my cheek. You are the best, and thanks for the music and the smiles :)
I really enjoyed this post, Josh. Its funny because a few summers ago I drove across the country and stopped at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and had the same reaction as you. Also, I drove through Boisse, Idaho where I encountered the worst rain storm EVER.
I love your music and I truly enjoyed your show at the Sommerville Theater! You’re one of a kind.
Hey there, walking dictionary! I enjoyed your description of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Is it me or does it feel really weird to type out the “and”?) I’ll be at the Tucson show this Saturday. I look forward to seeing you.
so you made it through my home state of Nebraska - without stopping to play… that’s okay, i will be in Arizona and catch you there… looking forward to the show. peace!
See myself in the Park West picture as well. What a great time. I’m sitting down in that photo (must’ve been taken around 7, before Eric went on stage), was standing up on the floor once the show started. That dance floor went from where you see it now to nearly full in a matter of minutes. Great venue as well, love having a really nice, but still not overly large venue. Nothing against arenas and opera houses, theaters and the like, but they’re very simply not as much fun.
Thanks again for such an amazing show in Minneapolis! It was one of the best shows I have ever witnessed, can’t wait for next time!
thanks for writing these blogs! they are great! i’m coming to austin this monday to watch the show on 6th street. im pumped! the new album is a great piece of music.
blessings.
Thank You so much for the blogs. It is great to be able to keep up with you and be able to get a little glimps into what life is like on the road. I will be seeing you on Halloween and will be at Lasers Edge for the party. Fred is great isn’t he? I am looking forward to it very much. See Ya.
Awwww, no mention of the Ann Arbor show? I suppose some towns leave a more dominant impression on one’s mind than others. Best of luck to everyone in the shows to come!
I had a chance to catch your show at the Cedar in Minne. It was the best show that I’ve ever seen. The energy of the band is amazing and It’s cool to see a smile on your face for every song (almost). Plus the acoustics were insanely good. Thanks again and travel safe.
I enjoy reading your blog - it brings back the best memories of several cross country trips I’ve made in recent years.
I can’t wait for your Austin show! It’s my Austin anniversary - I was visiting Dallas and figuring out where I wanted to live when I won tickets to your Austin show last October. A weekend here made up my mind - I tell everyone that it’s just like Moscow with a million people… but they never believe somewhere so cool could be in Texas.
Andy, I think Josh could write a song about that. Josh, I think you should.
I see myself in that Park West picture. That’s pretty awesome.
(As was your set, of course.)
Thanks for the road trip report, Josh. And thanks for the photo of Cleveland at dusk. I’m only two hours away, but I get all nostalgic when I see the smokestacks from the steel mills. It’s like a living, breathing Bruce Springsteen song. Here in Columbus we don’t have smokestacks. We just have guys who sell insurance, and who wants to write a song about that?