Sermon On The Rocks

Josh Ritter is a national treasure, with amazing music and incredible poetry. Tells a story and keeps me singing along!

Having been an avid listener of Josh since 2004, I have witnessed the coming and going of several phases and styles as he has aged and changed as a person. This latest album is far different from the folksy stuff that he put out around ~1999-2002. Josh's lyrics are just as powerful and melancholy as always (and still imbued with the usual hint of whimsy or poetic word play), but the nature of the music is indeed very different. It is more bluesy, brash, sort of jaded or cynical in a way. Josh used to write love songs, stories, little worlds of images and mournful prose that would stick with you like lines from the bible (every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied), but now, he seems to write songs about moments, or ideas, like they are still images of a static mindset. The songs are reflections of a mood rather than a concept, or a story or ballad.Don't get me wrong, it's still good music by all means. I enjoy this album and I listen to it frequently, but the fact remains that something inside of Josh has clearly changed. Perhaps it was the divorce, perhaps it is the change in scenery since moving to the Hudson Valley, perhaps the trials and revelations of fatherhood. Perhaps the acceptance of growing older, or maybe the solace and comfort of a happy marriage. Who knows? Maybe it's everything rolled in together that makes a man the difference between what he was and who he is.One thing I can say for certain, though, is that talking about heart break, and living it are two very different things; the schism is apparent in the transformation of his style between So Runs The World Away and The Beast In Its Tracks. All the same, I recommend this album, BUT, only to people who have heard Josh's other music first, as I believe this one is quite different and might form an inaccurate impression.

Josh Ritter's "Sermon on the Rocks" is a strong set, moving in a quite different direction from his earlier work. Gone is the emphasis on acoustic melodic folk/pop with a catchy hook. Present are pulsing rhythmic folk/rock, some tracks coming with a verbal barrage that skates over the meager melodic lines. The opening track "Birds of the Meadow" announces this shift with its throbbing bass line, "Honey, I'm a wild one & I'm dressed in rags." "Young Moses" maintains Ritters' talent as lyricist with some fancy retro guitar, "Stay a while in the house of gold; each room has many mansions, each mansion many rooms; You'll sleep on sheets of silver; You'll eat on plates of moon." "Getting Ready to Get Down" marries a lyrical barrage and tries to marry the worldly to the religious, "Pastor got a look and said ya'll had better hurry, send her off to a little Bible college in Missouri." "Seeing Me Around" slows the pace with a sad romantic reflection, "My hands were tied, my clothes were torn; You threw me naked to your thorns." "Where the Night Goes" seems more hopeful comparing life to a road trip, "In a long night, old car, back roads & the boneyards, You drop the pedal like a holy roller." "Sermon on the Rocks" is a great set, remarkable for the incredible shift for Ritter, which he does successfully. Enjoy!

Like much by Josh Ritter, Sermon takes a few listens, not least because it differs from what you may expect. But Ritter weaves a theme through a few dropped nouns and verbs: stones and sermons and skies appear in different places and contexts but seem to bind the whole. What I first took to be some light country rubber band riffs turn out to fit perfectly in their places and I should have known because nothing, either lyric or music, I've heard delivered by Ritter winds up being cheap or throw-away. The song "The Stone"--part paean to loyalty in love, part recognition of inevitable loneliness-- is worth the full price of admission. "Man On A Horse" is, I imagine, a poke in the eye to Messiah College and other hypocrites. The rest are more varied, darker, and more interesting than they sound on first or second hearing. If it doesn't move you--and it didn't me because it was such a distance from the superb "So Runs The World Away"--give it a second, third, fourth, fifth chance. Sermon rocks and will establish itself.

I have been a huge JR fan since early on, he is an epic writer with agift for marrying inventive tunes to poetic lyrics. After his last Album, TheBeast In It's Tracks (WTF happened there?) I thought perhaps his epicwriting days were over, I listened to this album skeptically at first but warmedup to it quickly. The title itself is a multi-play-on-words, it could mean; Sermonon the mount gone awry, it could mean a rock & roll revival, it could mean talkingJesus over a good shot of bourbon--probably he considered all three meaningsfitting. This album has grown on me immensely and is still in regular rotation inmy CD player (not many albums stick in my changer, so that is high praise). I amglad he is back using his songwriting gifts to their fullest. I am putting it on as wespeak and am getting ready to get down.....Highly recommended. Also listen toKelley Stoltz' Triangle Time album if you like great writing and tunes that rock ina creative fashion....

This is a really good album. HOWEVER, the final track of the album, "My Man on a Horse (Is Here)", as provided as an mp3 by Amazon is the incorrect length. It should be 3:48 long, but the mp3 is only 2:40 long and cuts off mid-song. (I suspect this is a problem with the mp3 provided by the label, as the track is the incorrect length on Amazon, Spotify, and Google Play, but the correct length on iTunes.) I recommend not purchasing this mp3 album until this issue is addressed.UPDATE 10/18/15Amazon now has the correct version of this track. For some reason they couldn't just add it to my Amazon Music Library, so if you got the bad version, you'll have to contact them to get a credit and re-purchase the track.

Great album very pleased

Bought as gift. Sounds good and digital download was hassle-free

fantastic

Excellent Album and worth the extra for the home recordings

Excellent again