Renowned singer, songwriter, musician, artist, and best-selling author Josh Ritter releases his new song, “Wild Ways,” today. Listen/share HERE.

Of the track, Ritter shares:

“‘Wild Ways’ is about surrendering to the better angels of our own natures, about allowing them to guide us through life through our experience of joy and awe. Perhaps those better angels are the ones around us we love, perhaps they are truly angels, circling the air about our heads. Either way, in welcoming them into our lives by surrendering, we can find ourselves in whole new worlds of wonder.”

The song is the latest unveiled from Ritter’s anticipated new album, I Believe in You, My Honeydew, out this Friday, September 12 via Thirty Tigers (pre-order/pre-save HERE).

Throughout his decades-long career, Ritter has established himself as “one of the most perceptive artists making music today” (American Songwriter), releasing twelve albums to date and earning the respect of countless music legends, with artists such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Bob Weir having performed and recorded his songs.

With the release of I Believe in You, My Honeydew, Ritter shares ten tracks that further demonstrate the insightful and engaging artistry he’s celebrated for, including “Noah’s Children,” “You Won’t Dig My Grave,” and “Truth is a Dimension (Both Invisible and Blinding),” released earlier this summer. Produced by Sam Kassirer (Lake Street Dive, Langhorne Slim), the new album features Ritter alongside his Royal City Band: Kassirer (piano, organ, synthesizer, accordion), Zachariah Hickman (acoustic and electric bass, thumb piano, mandolin), Rich Hinman (guitars, pedal steel, mandolin), and Ray Rizzo (drums, percussion).

In celebration of the new music, Ritter will tour this fall with newly confirmed solo shows at Los Angeles’ Masonic Lodge, Portland’s The Old Church (two nights), Seattle’s St. Mark’s Cathedral, and full-band shows at New York’s Brooklyn Steel, Minneapolis’ Fitzgerald Theater, Philadelphia’s Keswick Theatre, Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre, and more. He will also return to Boston for his First Annual Homecoming Dance at Citizens House of Blues on November 15, with a portion of ticket presales benefitting the Immigrant Defense Project. Tickets go on sale Friday, September 12 at 10:00am ET, with pre-sale access available now at www.joshritter.com.

The new project follows Ritter’s 2024 mini-album Heaven, or Someplace as Nice, recorded with legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, and his acclaimed 2023 full-length Spectral Lines. Paste praised: “Josh Ritter is like a more open-hearted version of Leonard Cohen. His lyrics draw on the divine, but he seems to see a little heaven in all the people around him,” while No Depression declared the record “a hopeful tapestry that encourages listeners to sit with each other in introspection, but not to forget to sing along.”

In addition to his music, Ritter is also a national best-selling author, having released two novels: 2011’s Bright’s Passage and 2021’s The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All, for which film rights have recently been optioned. Of Bright’s Passage, Stephen King wrote in The New York Times Book Review that it “shines with a compressed lyricism that recalls Ray Bradbury in his prime…This is the work of a gifted novelist.” Most recently, Ritter launched his Substack, Josh Ritter’s Book of Jubilations, a place to reflect and explore the ideas, stories, and creative moments that have shaped him.

I Believe in You, My Honeydew — Track List

1. You Won’t Dig My Grave

2. Honeydew (No Light)

3. Truth is a Dimension (Both Invisible and Blinding)

4. Noah’s Children

5. Wild Ways

6. Thunderbird

7. Kudzu Vines

8. I’m Listening

9. The Wreckage of One Vision of You

10. The Throne

Josh Ritter Confirmed Tour Dates

BOLD = on sale Friday, September 12 at 10:00am ET

October 1 — Los Angeles, CA — Masonic Lodge (solo show) (SOLD OUT)
October 2 — Los Angeles, CA — Masonic Lodge (solo show)
October 3 — San Francisco, CA — The Chapel
October 3–5 — San Francisco, CA — Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
October 7 — Portland, OR — The Old Church (solo show) (SOLD OUT)
October 8 — Portland, OR — The Old Church (solo show) (SOLD OUT)
October 10 — Seattle, WA — St. Mark’s Cathedral (solo show)
October 11 — Moscow, ID — University of Idaho Admin Auditorium (solo show) (SOLD OUT)
October 12 — Moscow, ID — Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre (solo show) (SOLD OUT)
November 1 — Rochester, NY — Concerts at Beston Hall
November 2 — Grand Rapids, MI — St. Cecilia Music Center
November 3 — Ann Arbor, MI — The Ark
November 4 — Cincinnati, OH — Taft Theatre
November 6 — St. Louis, MO — The Sovereign
November 7 — Chicago, IL — Thalia Hall
November 8 — Minneapolis, MN — Fitzgerald Theater
November 9 — Des Moines, IA — Hoyt Sherman Place
November 12 — Pittsburgh, PA — Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall
November 13 — Washington, D.C. — Lincoln Theatre
November 14 — Philadelphia, PA — Keswick Theatre
November 15 — Boston, MA — Citizens House of Blues Boston
November 16 — New York, NY — Brooklyn Steel
March 30 — St. Albert, AB — The Arden Theatre (solo show)
with special guest Bhi Bhiman