Josh Ritter and Tift Merritt
August 7, 2010
Tarrytown Music Hall
Tarrytown, NY

I’ve been a huge fan of North Carolina native Tift Merritt since her debut album Bramble Rose, which was my favorite CD of 2002. I was very surprised that her 2nd album Tambourine, which she supported with an amazing band and stage show following its 2004 release, didn’t make her a household name. Tift lives in NYC now and has made two more outstanding records in recent years (Another Country and See You On the Moon) as well as releasing two excellent concert CDs, one with her band called Home Is Loud and another featuring a 2009 solo performance in the UK, Buckingham Solo. She writes consistently good songs (in fact she was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article on songwriting) and always gives 110% at her performances. This beautiful opening set for Josh Ritter was no exception, and I can testify that she made many new fans among the people who came to see Josh play. I’m not so sure performing the title song from her newest release unamplified in such a large theater with such a loud A/C system was such a great idea, but it nonetheless sounded pretty nice at my seat in the sixth row.

I couldn’t find a photo of Tift from this show, but she looks like this:

photo courtesy of Bill Ivester

1. intro
2. The Things That Everybody Does
3. Engine To Turn
4. Another Country
5. Good Hearted Man
6. Mixtape
7. Feel Of The World
8. See You On The Moon (unamplified)
9. Stray Paper
10. Do Something Good (with Austin Nevins)

Stream the set from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (30′ from stage, 8′ LoC) > Darktrain interconnects > Oade Concert PMD-661 @24/44.1 > PNY 16Gb SDHC cardreader > Adobe Audition/iZotope Ozone > CD Wave (tracking)
limiting on applause, fades, gain, dither
additional 8dB gain in track 8

Please support the artist and buy Tift’s albums!
www.tiftmerritt.com

Also an exceptional songwriter, Josh Ritter (originally from Idaho) recorded his first album in 1999 while still a student at Oberlin College. His popularity has really bloomed in recent years largely on the strength of his killer band and high energy live performances. I first saw them at Newport Folk Fest last year and was totally blown away! Josh has built a very loyal and enthusiastic following with his amazingly well-rounded canon of songs, which is abundantly evident on this tape. Normally I wouldn’t upload a recording with this much audience noise, but in the case of a Josh Ritter concert it’s really an integral part of the show — and without doubt it is a very JOYFUL noise! I also haven’t found many recent recordings of Josh on the Live Music Archive, so I decided to make this one available. The soundstage sometimes becomes a little wobbly since it was impossible to remain still, but I think the recording as a whole is very listenable and certainly provides an excellent feel for the live Josh Ritter experience!

Josh Ritter – vocals, guitar, harmonica
Austin Nevins – guitar, glockenspiel, synth, vocals
Sam Kassirer – organ, piano, vocals
Zach Hickman – bass, synth, vocals
Liam Hurley – drums, percussion

1. Good Man
2. Wolves
3. Change Of Time
4. Mind’s Eye
5. Right Move
6. Rainslicker
7. Folk Bloodbath *
8. Rattling Locks
9. Rumors
10. tomato story
11. The Curse
12. Lark
13. Long Shadows
14. Lillian, Egypt
15. Mexican Home **
16. Bright Smile
17. As Yet Untitled
18. Monster Ballads
19. Lantern ***
20. Kathleen
21. Naked As A Window > Girl In The War
22. Harrisburg > Once In A Lifetime **** > Harrisburg
23. To The Dogs Or Whoever
24. band intros
25. intro to encore
26. Moon River *****
27. Snow Is Gone
28. Wait For Love (with Tift Merritt)

* tenuously based on the song Louis Collins by Mississippi John Hurt
** John Prine cover
*** the audience waved glowsticks passed out by a fan before the set started – Josh was surprised!
**** Talking Heads cover
***** Mercer/Mancini cover

Stream the set from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

photos courtesy of mega-fan Krista Carwardine

Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (30′ from stage, 8′ LoC) > Darktrain interconnects > Oade Concert PMD-661 @24/44.1 > PNY 16Gb SDHC
cardreader > Adobe Audition/Algorithmix Red PEQ & LP SplitComp > CD Wave (tracking)
Editing: limiting on applause, compression on kick drum, EQ to fix excessive bass and sibilance, fades, gain, dither

Many thanks to Krista for her help with the set list.

Please support the artist and buy Josh’s albums!
www.joshritter.com