286. I BELIEVE IN YOU, MY HONEYDEW by Josh Ritter

I've covered Josh Ritter several times already so you may wonder why I'm, yet again, spilling ink about him. Well he consistently puts out really good records to the point that he, along with Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee, are hands down my favorite contemporary Americana singer-songwriters of the past decade or more. I've been lucky enough to see Ritter in concert three times and already have tickets for his show when he stops in Houston in 2026. More on that later.

Ritter's backstory on this 2025 album, as he has told in interviews, is that he recently felt like he lost his 'muse' that would help him make the music he makes. So he decided to turn the tables and write for his muse. And, he refers to this muse as his Honeydew, hence the album title. I'm not sure I quite follow but it doesn't really matter as long as I like the music - and that I do.

I freakin' love the track 'Thunderbird' so start out with that one. It's got the sweetest sounding slide guitar percolating throughout. It's the love song I wish I could've written for my wife and, although she never got to hear it, it makes me think of her so much. Follow with 'Truth is a Dimension (Both Invisible and Blinding)' - a very Dylan-esque song with a guitar riff that will remind you of Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song.' 'You Won't Dig My Grave' comes next and then end with 'The Wreckage of One Vision of You' - a raunchy, New Orleans-style romp.

Let me end with a little story about my wife and Josh Ritter. I, as you already know, am a huge fan. I would even go as far as calling myself a fanboy. Namrata, however, liked him in the way a spouse likes something the other spouse likes, mostly to show love and support. There were a few songs here and there that she really liked, probably because she heard me playing them all the time. Or maybe she really liked them inherently, I'll never know. So with that in mind, remember how I mentioned I've seen him in concert three times. Well, Namrata accompanied me two of those three times. One time happened to be on my birthday so that makes sense - a nice thing to do for me on my special day. Do you know when the other time was? Yes, it was on her birthday. I know for a fact there were probably a million other places she would've rather gone to celebrate her special day but instead she went to the Josh Ritter show with me and for me. It's a little gesture which, in retrospect, is not so little after all. In fact, it's huge.