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Josh Ritter On World Cafe

Watching my guest Josh Ritter stand on stage and perform, you would swear that his feet aren't touching the ground. It looks like he's been lifted straight up by the music he's playing, somewhere between standing on his tip toes and actual levitation. His smile is huge. And you get this overwhelming sense of joy.

But Ritter says the music on his new record, Gathering, reflects four different moods, all vying for attention: Uncertainty, Mania, Laughter and Sadness. He identified them in a piece he wrote for NPRbefore Gathering came out, and when I read Ritter's piece, I was curious about where and how those ideas fit in. We found out in this session.

Ritter has been releasing records for almost 20 years now. His last visit to World Cafe took place in 2015 around the release of his record Sermon on the Rocks. The following year he co-wrote Blue Mountain, the solo album from Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. This year, Ritter's Gathering features a duet with Weir on a song called "When Will I Be Changed"; that's one Ritter says falls into the "Sadness" category. And, oh boy, does it ever. Hear the complete session in the player above.

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.