''Hello Starling'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter

Josh Ritter Joshua B. Ritter (born October 21, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author who performs and records with the Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana (music), Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2 ...

. It was Ritter's second album release nationally on the label

Signature Sounds Signature Sounds Recordings is an independent record label specializing in Americana (music), Americana and modern folk music. Jim Olsen and Mark Thayer founded the label in 1995 to promote acoustic musicians who were playing in Northampton, Massa ...

. It was originally released on September 9, 2003, a two-disc deluxe edition was re-issued on January 17, 2010

Critical reception

As Ritter's previous albums have done, ''Hello Starling'' was compared to other

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

greats such as

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

, and

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

. His voice on the album was described as smooth with sleepy, rough edges. George Graham praised the lyrics and vocal delivery.

Track listing

All songs written by

. #"Bright Smile" – 3:01 #"Kathleen" – 4:08 #"You Don't Make It Easy Babe" – 2:32 #"Man Burning" – 2:47 #"Rainslicker" – 4:13 #"Wings" – 4:07 #"California" – 3:10 #"Snow Is Gone" – 4:03 #"Bone of Song" – 5:30 #"Baby That's Not All" – 5:59 #"The Bad Actress" – 3:39

Credits

Personnel

–

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

, guitar, violin *Zack Hickman – bass, guitar,

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

*David Hingerty – drums *Sam Kassirer –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

, piano,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

*David Odlum – guitar, mandolin, vocals *Darius Zelkha – drums on "California", vocals

Production

* Mixed by David Odlum * Mastering by Jonathan Wyner * Artwork by Ed Braverman

Deluxe Edition

''Hello Starling'' was reissued on January 17, 2010, as a two-disc Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition includes the complete original studio album and a second bonus disc. The bonus disc contains solo acoustic versions of all the original tracks (re-recorded by Ritter in Nashville of June 2008) as well as four live bonus tracks, an introduction by

Dennis Lehane Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including '' A Drink Before the War''. Four of hi ...

, and a full color lyric and photo booklet with never-before-seen photos.

Track listing of Deluxe Edition (Bonus CD)

#"Bright Smile (Solo Acoustic)" – 3:14 #"Kathleen (Solo Acoustic)" – 4:10 #"You Don't Make It Easy Babe (Solo Acoustic)" – 2:51 #"Man Burning (Solo Acoustic)" – 2:50 #"Rainslicker (Solo Acoustic)" – 4:09 #"Wings (Solo Acoustic)" – 4:33 #"California (Solo Acoustic)" – 3:20 #"Snow Is Gone (Solo Acoustic)" – 3:40 #"Bone of Song (Solo Acoustic)" – 5:14 #"Baby That's Not All (Solo Acoustic)" – 3:21 #"The Bad Actress (Solo Acoustic)" – 3:19 #"Kathleen (Live)" – 4:35 #"Golden Age of Radio (Live)" – 4:40 #"You Don't Make It Easy Babe (Live)" – 3:38 #"Snow is Gone (Live)" – 4:17

References

External links

Josh Ritter official websiteLyrics
{{Authority control Josh Ritter albums 2003 albums Albums produced by Dave Odlum V2 Records albums