Ritter & Rhine

Two recent (and interesting) artist interviews to report: Over the Rhine & Josh Ritter.

Over the Rhine is a husband and wife duo who I interviewed backstage at Hollywood's Knitting Factory. Hadn't heard much of their music beforehand, but I have to say that I found their latest effort, The Trumpet Child, an impressive array of tunes. The record moves deftly from country to folk to jazz--a delightful sampling of wholesome Americana goodness. And Karen Berqhuist's voice is absolutely divine. The podcast interview will be available to stream in the near future on LiveDaily.com.

Josh Ritter (not to be confused with Josh Rouse or John Ritter) is a pretty damn good acoustic guitar-toting, folk-pop singer/songwriter who (in my mind, at least) somehow manages to stick out among the endless sea of them at the minute. I talked to Josh via phone and below is an excerpt. Of course, I had to engage him in a conversation about books because, well, I'm geeky that way:

You toured with Joan Baez, who then recorded your song “Wings.” How did it feel to have someone like her pay you such a compliment?
It’s always the ultimate compliment when anybody covers your song, no matter who it is. It just means so much that they commit your work to tape, you know? I know how that is because when I cover somebody’s song in a show it’s a compliment to their songwriting and I think it’s a really big compliment. So I take it as a huge one when somebody else does it (with my songs), especially someone like her who’s seen it all and done it all. It went a long ways towards convincing my parents that I could do this for a living (laughs). They’re the biggest record label, your family.

Wow. So that’s what it took to convince them that you could quit your day job?
I think it allayed their fears a little bit. They’ve always been really supportive, but I can imagine if my kid was out doing this I’d be freaked out too.

Your songs are filled with numerous literary, Biblical & historical allusions. You must be an avid reader.
Yeah.

What’s the last book you read?
I just read The Most Famous Man in America which is the biography of Henry Ward Beecher (a 19th century preacher). It just won the Pulitzer Prize and it’s about one of America’s great entertainment industries, which are preachers (laughs). And it’s basically about the roots of Evangelical Christianity and the real, kind of, rock ‘n’ roll preachers from (Beecher) all the way down the line to Billy Graham and some of those new guys who are coming. It’s kind of the melding of the Bible and the dollar. It’s pretty interesting. He was a major force in the abolition of slavery. Really interesting guy.

Do you think there’s a lot that a musician can learn from preachers?
It’s really interesting. There are so many corollaries, you know, because at that point there was sort of a vaudeville sort of scene. And that was just starting up in New York and in a lot of ways the large, organized entertainment industry relies on transportation. At that point, the steamboat was giving way to the railroad and that was a major turning point—that somebody could go on a tour. The first real world tour of entertainment was Mark Twain in the late 1890s and it was only because there were all these different transportation forms that allowed them to go to all these places. There was also a media that was burgeoning. Like telegraph and good printing presses that could work fast so that you could have newspapers and fast traveling news. That’s all stuff that we see repercussions of now. So, yeah, there’s a lot that you can learn from all sorts of stuff. I always think it’s weird how people always just ask about…They ask about influences, you know, I do get influenced by music but I’d say far more by other stuff. It’s cool to just pick up a book and find out something that you just wouldn’t have thought of.

For the entire interview, visit Noisetap.com.