His 8th album Sermon on the Rocks was recorded in New Orleans and just released last week by Josh Ritter, and you can listen to it now on Spotify. Like the title suggests he focuses on what he calls “messianic oracular honky-tonk,” often dispensed via a kind of traveling-preacher/snake-oil-salesman persona.

Album

Here is his new album.

“Sermon on the Rocks” by Josh Ritter (2015) – 43 min

Interviews

He talks about his new album in this Paste magazine article.

Here’s a live conversation with Josh Ritter about his new album that also includes a live acoustic set of 5 songs: Henrietta, Indiana, Where the Night Goes, Getting Ready to Get Down, Engine Engine #9, and My Man on a Horse (Is Here).

“World Cafe – NPR Music” – WXPN-FM (Philadelphia) – 29 min 33 sec.

http://www.npr.org/player/embed/449161363/449171680

Videos

The following video playlist includes 7 earlier songs from a live concert DVD: Kathleen, Me and Jiggs, Bright Smile, The Curse, Harrisburg, Change of Time, and Lantern.

“Live at the Iveagh Gardens” – Dublin, Ireland (July 2010) – 38 min

Playlist

Here is my playlist of his more more popular songs.

“Josh Ritter (Playlist)” – 56 songs, 3 hr 29 min

Listen to more of his music at my Josh Ritter post with additional albums, videos, and links. I have updated my music post from September 23, 2014 to include the new album, and incorporated the new songs in my extended playlist.

Note: This post completely replaces an earlier preview post on October 8th which included a First Listen link at NPR Music a week before the album was released.

Photo credit: Sermon on the Rocks @ Amazon (album cover)