After Josh Ritter’s last couple releases, I was beginning to wonder if his music would ever connect with me again like it had in the old days. His finest albums, 2006’s The Animal Years and 2007’s The Historical Conquests of… were both loaded with terrific melodies, astounding lyrical content, and emulations of musical influences that sit directly in my wheelhouse, from Bruce Springsteen to Bob Dylan to Leonard Cohen. 2010’s slow-burning return, titled So Runs the World Away, largely sought refuge in a sunnier folk-pop vein, a la Paul Simon, but despite a few stellar stand-outs, fell short. And last year’s EP, Bringing in the Darlings, failed to connect with me on any level.

Usually only once or twice a year, an album comes along, trailing behind it a robust passion for music, an appreciation for the legends of the genre, and above all, the ability to capture the hearts and minds of all those who listen. In 2007, that album is without a doubt Josh Ritter’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Ritter walks the same traveling minstrel line as Springsteen and the Man in Black himself, producing songs that go far beyond a simple entertainment factor. Many critics believed Josh Ritter might never top his heavily-praised release from seventeen months before, The Animal Years. Switching musical styles quite noticeably, Ritter instead chose to blow the doors off of his earlier work.