Friday Nite Check In

Yeah..., this section of The Barnyard Fence could use a little wire stretching to tighten her up..., but Charlie Horse seems to respect it as is.  Not so with the other three pasture sections that we wired off..., before the elk showed not just disrespect..., but outright distain for.  At that time I just fenced off the driveway and let the three horses roam the whole Homestead.  I can still corral Charlie Horse in The Barnyard and leave the driveway gate open when I expect company..., or UPS.

I guess I could bore you with more stories about How the Garden Grows..., or Weed Eating the Driveway..., or Cleaning the Water Troughs..., but it bores me to repeat myself too.

Got a phone call from an Aaron Newman over in Idaho the other day and we talked about music and Josh Ritter in particular.  I don't recall just how I got turned on to Ritter's music and discovered that he was born and grew up through high school in Moscow, ID.  It must have been my Pandora music channel..., he fits right in with my favorite artists that I follow and like there.  The singer/songwriter artists that aren't always great commercial figures..., Tom Russell, Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Dylan, and Robert Earl Keen.  It was his lyric writing that really attracted me to him..., lines like this from "Wolves"...,a song off his fourth album, "The Animal Years" (2006)...,

At times in the frozen nights I go roaming 
In the bed she used to share with me 
I wake in the fields with the cold and the lonesome 
The moon's the only face that I see 
But I still remember that time when we were dancing 
We were dancing to a song that I'd heard 
Your face was simple and your hands were naked 
I was singing without knowing the words

..., or these from the song "To the Dogs or Whoever" off his fifth album "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter" (2007)...,

Deep in the belly of a whale I found her
Down with the deep blue jail around her
Running her hands through the ribs of the dark
Florence and Calamity and Joan of Arc

..., and these from "Empty Hearts" off the same album...,

I'm inside with my friends
We build fires and pretend
That the night could just bend on forever
While outside in the frost
Are the wolves and the lost
And we sing "To the Dogs or Whoever"

..., and these from "Right Moves" off the same album...,

I said how is it that you come back to me?
You don't need the stories of my scars or in the stars to tell you nothing's free
I traded all the innocence I ever had for hesitation
I said won't you tell me where you been?
You put a finger to my lips and then you kissed me once and once again
The crickets all leapt up and met the moon with a standing ovation

Am I making all the right moves
Am I singing you the right blues
Is there a chance that I could call you
Just to see how you are doing?

Yeah..., I have known girls who were part Florence Nightangale, part Calamity Jane an part Joan of Arc..., and yeah..., I have know girls who's kisses made the crickets leap up and meet the moon with a standing ovation.  And I have to admit that I have know the loss of love and felt the ambiguous feelings expressed in the lyrics of the song "New Lover" off his seventh album "The Beast in Its Tracks" (2013)..., that was written after the break up of his first marriage...,

I can't pretend that all is well, it's like I'm haunted by a ghost 
There are times I cannot speak your name for the catchin' in my throat, 
There are things I will not sing for the sting of sour notes.

I feel like a miser, I feel low and mean 
For accusing you of stealin' what I offered you for free. 
Still it baffles the belief sometimes what thieves we lovers be.

I don't know who you're with these days, might be with someone new 
And if you are, I hope he treats you like a lover ought to do. 
But whoever makes you happy, it don't really matter who 
I've got a new lover now, I hope you've got a lover too.

Praise the water under bridges, the time they say will heal 
Praise the fonder, that still grows on the absent heart and fields
Praise be to this pain, these days it's all I seem to feel.

Perhaps the fault was mine 
Perhaps I just ignored who you're always gonna be, 
Instead of who I took you for. 
I've been treated worse it's true, still I expected more.

But I will not chase your shadow as you go from room to room, 
Droppin' handkerchiefs and daggers, smokin' guns and other clues 
For what someone did with someone and who did what to who. 
I've got a new lover now, I hope you've got a lover too.

I've got a new lover now, I know that she's not mine,
I only want to hold her, I don't need to read her mind,
And she only looks like you when she's in a certain light.

I got a new lover now, she knows just what I need. 
When I wake up in the night, she can read me back my dreams, 
And she loves them, though she never needs to tell me what they mean.

I hope you've got a lover now, hope you've got somebody who 
Can give you what you need like I couldn't seem to do. 
But if you're sad and you are lonesome and you've got nobody true, 
I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me happy too.
I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me happy too.

Those were the first three CDs that I got.  The first two I chose to get songs I had heard on Pandora..., and the third one was his most recent release that I chose for that reason.  Ritter produced albums in 2015 and 2017 that I didn't pick up..., but I got 2019's "Fever Breaks" for a couple of reasons.  Jason Isbell produced it and he and his band The 400 Unit lended support as well.  I had purchased tickets to see both artists together at an outdoor venue in Missoula, MT..., where Julie's sister and brother in law lived.  Julie and I ended up not making it to the gig due to Julie's medical problems..., but that album is a keeper..., with lines like "Losing Battles"...,

It's always been in my nature to be the beast
Blame the maker but stay with me

Fell into a den of thieves
Got lost in the caves of virtue
Born again and lost belief
Without a friend till the day I met you

Now I'm trying to mend my ways
I had enough of pain and bad will
Good enough for you someday
Till then, it's a losing battle

After Julie passed away on New Years Eve 2024..., Josh Ritter helped me through that loss with this song off his twelfth album "Heaven, or Someplace as Nice".  Julie and I stretched a lot of wire here on The Ranch as you can see in the picture above..., and I am still "Stretching Wire"...,

You can see him in the blizzard
Where night is day and day is night
Where every footstep disappears
Just as soon as he goes by
He likes his life this way
Moving slow from post to post
You might think that he's a ghost
But no, he's stretching wire

He's always moving forward
Never turning back around
Always moving in a straight line
To wherever he is now
Nothing up above him
But the buzzards in the sky
And in the ground the girl who loved him
So, he's stretching wire

He hears the whippers in the willow
He feeds the rattlesnakes by hand
Tumbleweeds while he is sleeping
Roll by quiet as they can
He's not afraid of morning
Or the sorrow that it brings
He'll stretch the wire till it sings
He's stretching wire"

Josh Ritter has put out thirteen studio albums..., plus a few live albums among other musical endeavors.  You can read a pretty good summary of his career and life history on Wikipedia..., here's a link...,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Ritter

 He also has a personal website with tour dates and items for sale.  I noticed that he recently had sold out shows two months ago back "home"..., "Had an incredible time in Bozeman and Missoula - thank you for joining me! Excited for our three SOLD OUT shows this weekend in Spokane, Boise, and Hailey!" and he is scheduled for a July 4th free show in Boise, ID.

https://joshritter.com/

Here is a link to his YouTube page with all kinds of Josh Ritter clips and songs...,

https://www.youtube.com/joshritter

I will leave you with "Stretching Wire" for this Friday Nite Music Video..., I already posted the lyrics up above...,