Fever Breaks

by Josh Ritter

Overview

The follow-up to 2017's loose and versatile Gathering, Fever Breaks sees the lauded Idaho-bred singer/songwriter teaming up with producer and Americana wunderkind Jason Isbell and delivering a taut ten-track set backed by Isbell and his formidable 400 Unit. Less prone to stylistic detours than previous outings, Fever Breaks is a straight-up band album, with Ritter and company administering some serious muscle on cuts like "Old Black Magic" and "Losing Battles," the latter of which gives off a distinct Crazy Horse vibe. Dylanesque opener "Ground Don't Want Me" takes a similar approach, but retains a modicum of heartland folksiness, bringing it more in line with Ritter's earlier works. Things take a more bucolic and less propulsive turn on "On the Water" and "I Still Love You (Now and Then)," the former a Springsteen-y, road trip-ready love song, and the latter a heartfelt, rear-view mirror ode to a love long gone. Ritter has always been a deft lyricist, and Fever Breaks is rife with both poetic ("I wanna lay down in a field of bone, but an angel guards the garden") and prudent ("There was a time when we were them, just as now they all are we") observations of the human condition. A trad-folk singer at heart, Ritter has no qualms about getting political, taking on holding pens filled with refugee children on the contrastingly sunny-sounding "All Some Kind of Dream," and caustic tribalism on the satirical "Torch Committee." Throughout, the 400 Unit, specifically Amanda Shires, who provides soaring harmonies and some truly emotive violin work, adds considerable sonic heft to the proceedings, and help to imbue Ritter's workmanlike folk-rock narratives with the kind of studio finesse that sometimes eludes him when left to his own devices. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	04/26/2019
Label:	Pytheas Recordings
UPC:	0747989359735
Rank:	133339

Tracks

1. Ground Don't Want Me
2. Old Black Magic
3. On the Water
4. I Still Love You (Now and Then)
5. The Torch Committee
6. Silverblade
7. All Some Kind of Dream
8. Losing Battles
9. A New Man
10. Blazing Highway Home

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Josh Ritter   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
Jason Isbell   Guitar,Vocals
Derry Deborja   Organ,Piano,Accordion
Amanda Shires   Violin,Vocals
Sadler Vaden   Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Guitar (12 String Acoustic)
Chad Gamble   Drums,Percussion
Jimbo Hart   Ukulele,Bass (Upright)

Technical Credits

Josh Ritter   Composer
Pete Lyman   Mastering
Jason Isbell   Producer
Jason Holley   Cover Painting
David McClister   Photography
Michael Byzewski   Design
Anna Marsh   Assistant
Matt Ross-Spang   Mixing,Engineer