![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/josh_ritter_so_runs_the_world_away.jpg\" "\\"josh_ritter_so_runs_the_world_away\\"")
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We have been fans of Josh Ritter since his first formal release, “The Golden Age of Radio,” back in 2001.\u00a0 Though the spawn of two neuroscientists and raised in Idaho, Josh had a Midwestern air about him (with his references to Lawrence, Kansas and “dry land farming”).\u00a0 And we Leforts are suckers for the Midwestern touch and so were immediately smitten with Ritter.\u00a0 But beyond the geographical allusions and pull, we have come to know Ritter as a phenomenally talented and engaging songwriter, regardless of locale.\u00a0 He has a flair for both bereaved ballads and upbeat ululations filled with mark-hitting melodies and well-turned phrases.<\/p>\n
Ritter recently released his new record, “So Runs the World Away,” and it is filled with his usual song gems, with their stories, historical tales and parchment parables.\u00a0 The songs feature cascading wordplay and atmospherics provided by maudlin horns, and come across as alternately funny, bittersweet, and strangely striking despite the eclectic and detailed subject matter (he has been inclined to history-based lyrics, ever since his 2001 Harrisburg<\/em> song).\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>The record title and the music on this new record speak to mankind’s exploratory exploits, but also the dejection and realism found in the unobtainable.\u00a0\u00a0 Ritter suggests that our exploratory campaigns will continue unceasingly though much will be ventured and lost in the process.\u00a0 Such is life, we murmur.\u00a0 And we hum “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”<\/p>\n Check out a few of the gems off of each of his new one and his first one below.<\/p>\n Josh Ritter–Change of Time (<\/em>from the new one)<\/p>\n “I had a dream last night Time, love I had a dream last night The black clouds I’m hanging I had a dream last night (rough seas, they carry me wherever I go)”\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Josh Ritter–Change of Time<\/em><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/02-Change-Of-Time.mp3|titles=02 Change Of Time]\n Josh Ritter–See How Man Was Made (<\/em>also off the new one)<\/p>\n Here’s a self-explanatory beauty.<\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/10-See-How-Man-Was-Made.mp3|titles=10 See How Man Was Made]\n From his first album, we liked Other Side<\/em>, and the following lyrics:<\/p>\n “I’m still waiting for the whiskey to whisk me away Josh Ritter–Other Side<\/em><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/08-Other-Side.mp3|titles=08 Other Side]\n And perhaps our favorite Ritter song, Lawrence, Kansas,<\/em> from his first:<\/p>\n “Dirt roads and dryland farming might be the death of me I’ve been from here to Lawrence, Kansas South of Delia there’s a patch out back by the willow trees Some prophecies are self-fulfilling This world must be frightening everybody’s on the run Preacher says when the Master calls us Josh Ritter–Lawrence, Kansas<\/em><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/04-Lawrence-KS.mp3|titles=04 Lawrence, KS]\n
\nI dreamt that I was swimming
\nAnd the stars up above
\nDirectionless and drifting
\nSomewhere in the dark
\nWere the sirens and the thunder
\nAnd around me as I swam
\nThe drifters who’d gone under<\/p>\n
\nTime, love
\nTime, love
\nIt’s only a change of time<\/p>\n
\nAnd rusting far below me
\nBattered hulls and broken hardships
\nLeviathan and Lonely
\nI was thirsty so I drank
\nAnd though it was salt water
\nThere was something ’bout the way
\nIt tasted so familiar<\/p>\n
\nThis anchor I’m dragging
\nThe sails of memory rip open in silence
\nWe cut through the lowlands
\nAll hands through the saltlands
\nThe white caps of memory
\nConfusing and violent<\/p>\n
\nAnd when I opened my eyes
\nYour shoulder blade, your spine
\nWere shorelines in the moon light
\nNew worlds for the weary
\nNew lands for the living
\nI could make it if I tried
\nI closed my eyes I kept on swimming<\/p>\n
\nAnd I’m still waiting for the ashtray to lead me astray
\nI twist the cul-de-sacs into one way signs
\nI’m going round in circles on the other side”<\/p>\n
\nBut I can’t leave this world behind
\nDebts are not like prison where there’s hope of getting free
\nAnd I can’t leave this world behind<\/p>\n
\nTrying to leave my state of mind
\nTrying to leave this awful sadness
\nBut I can’t leave this world behind<\/p>\n
\nAnd I can’t leave this world behind
\nIt’s a fenced in piece of nothing where I hear voices on my knees
\nAnd I can’t leave this world behind<\/p>\n
\nBut I’ve had to work for all of mine
\nBetter times will come to me, God willing
\nCause I can’t leave this world behind<\/p>\n
\nAnd I can’t leave this world behind
\nAnd my house is a wooden one and its built on a wooden one
\nSeems I can’t leave this world behind<\/p>\n
\nHe’s gonna give us wings to fly
\nBut my wings are made of hay and corn husks
\nSo I can’t leave this world behind”<\/p>\n