So Runs the World Away

The great American songbook hasn't had a real curator since Bruce Springsteen's arrival nearly 40 years ago. There's no world champion, American-bred folkster making rounds on a peak-of-their-career level - the holdovers, like Bob Dylan or the Boss, have simply been doing victory laps since the '90s.

As time ticks on and an artist’s body of work grows, attention will often turn to questions of trajectory. How is it developing? Is it getting any better? Is anybody particularly bothered? Since the late Nineties, American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter had been industrious in the turning of heads and the stirring of hearts, but it was 2006’s magnificent The Animal Years that heralded defining change.