Saw Josh Ritter a couple of nights ago at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. (Much gratitude to Joxley for putting me onto this.) Why wasn't Josh home for Thanksgiving, I wondered.I asked the guy standing next to me whether Josh is famous in this country. (Yes, I don't have much of a clue what is going on around me. And yes, there were more than a handful of solitary geeks in the audience. Nice to see so many guys with the confidence to go out on their own.) My neighbour turned out to be a somewhat more recent economic migrant than me and advised that Josh is quite massive on the Irish indie scene. And during the set Josh mentioned that he had lived in Scotland for a while. The pieces were starting to fall into place.Sometimes Josh Ritter is a complete poet: "Your face was simple and your hands were naked". And in between times he and his band have the feel of a well-rehearsed Irish show band. He pulled off a really neat stunt in which he and another band member played one song with all the amplification turned off, on voice and a couple of acoustic guitars. You could have heard a pin drop. And in a good sized venue too. Classic. Talking of stagecraft, I once saw Nancy Sinatra, who had a couple of particularly neat tricks. First, she stood at the side of the stage and did a Powerpoint presentation of snaps from her life. Corny yeah? Lots of pics of her dad etc. But it ended with a shot of her snogging Elvis! (What about that?. Can you believe my life, it said.) Then towards the end, she went down onto the floor in front of the stage to sing These Boots are Made for Walking. Of course, nobody could see her. So everybody had to stand up. And there they remained for the rest of the set. You knew you were being manipulated, but it was so masterfully done you didn't care. Josh Ritter isn't in the same league, but he knows how to work an audience.The material from the new album sounded a bit bass-heavy; maybe a bit rockier. But not quite sure if it was the material or the mix. I'd like to hear the studio version. I kind of got the impression that not far below the surface of the lovely smiley well-rehearsed Josh Ritter is someone a little bit angrier. Anyway. Josh Ritter. Good man. Welcome at Chateau Load for dark beer and savoury snacks any day.