Watch Josh Ritter Perform Three New Songs in the Paste Studio

On April 26, Josh Ritter will follow his 2017 album Gathering with his new record Fever Breaks, one of the releases we’re most looking forward to in April. We’ve already heard two songs from Fever Breaks, bluesy lead single “Old Black Magic” and the more gentle “I Still Love You (Now and Then).” On Thursday, Ritter shared three more unreleased Fever Breaks tunes with the world in the Paste Studio. Keep scrolling to watch Ritter, along with guitarist Josh Kaufman, perform “All Some Kind of Dream,” “Losing Battles” and “Blazing Highway Home,” plus the aforementioned “Old Black Magic.”

Fever Breaks, Ritter’s 10th studio effort, was produced by Jason Isbell and features his band The 400 unit. They recorded the album at RCA Studios in Nashville. Ritter said during the session he chose the songs for this album based on “a desire to make a record that felt like it reflected the moment we’re in.” Indeed, Fever Breaks finds Ritter, like many other working songwriters right now, commenting on our hectic times. “It’s one of the more overtly political songs I’ve ever worked on,” Ritter said of “All Some Kind of Dream.” “But I feel like if not now, when?”

Before playing “Losing Battles,” Ritter explained the ideology behind the record.

“I think it’s important right now for us all to relate to each other and to expose our vulnerabilities and our uncertainties and our anger and right now I feel that’s all there for us to talk about,” he said. “To not talk about is not only kind of dishonest but a huge wasted opportunity.”

The final song from the session, “Blazing Highway Home,” is a love song with a twist.

“I was thinking about that there’s a lot of love songs but I wanted to write a love song about someone’s final moments,” Ritter said.

Again, you can watch Josh Ritter’s Paste Studio session from this week below. Further down, watch his session from 2017. You can pre-order Fever Breaks right here.