“An Evening with Josh Ritter” in Kingston

Presented by Bardavon, venerated singer-songwriter Josh Ritter will ascend the altar of the Old Dutch Church in Kingston to perform a special solo acoustic show on May 6 at 8pm.

Called one of the “100 Greatest Living Songwriters” by Paste magazine, Ritter is revered for his distinctive, deep voice, sharp wit, and evocative lyrics and has the distinction of being a hitmaker in the land of poets: “Me and Jiggs,” from his 2001 album The Golden of Age of Radio, made the Irish Top 40. Ritter grew up in Idaho, where he absorbed his dad’s copy of Nashville Skyline and bought his first guitar at Kmart. His self-created college major was “American History Through Narrative Folk Music,” which should give you some idea of his brand of introspective Americana. Ritter’s acknowledged pinnacle is 2003’s Hello Starling, although 2013’s wounded breakup classic The Beast in Its Tracks isn’t far behind. His most recent opus, 2019’s Fever Breaks, was produced by Jason Isbell and has drawn comparisons to Messrs. Dylan, Cohen, Springsteen, and Young.


“I don’t know about you, but for me this past year has had more than its fair share of long nights of the soul,” says Ritter in a press statement. “Whether in song or prose or one of those weird creatures that lives between, I’ve returned to stories over and over again for sustenance and counsel and forgetting. I’ve also found myself dreaming of touring again, being on stage, performing my songs—my stories—like I did for so long before the world turned on its head. I’ve lived in those memories when I couldn’t be on stage in any other way.

Bardavon presents “An Evening with Josh Ritter” at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston’s Stockade District on May 6 at 8pm. Tickets are $34-$44.