“Josh Ritter? Hell, he was born dead center of the whole country, who else is gonna tell us what it’s really like.” That’s Jason Isbell, who knows a little something about songwriting, on why Josh Ritter’s songs are so important right now. What must it feel like, to do what Josh Ritter can? To be able to see the world clear as it is, to be able to hold in your mind the various ways it might roll, spin or cant, to draw these versions for us in a few, perfectly chosen words, set to melodies as instantly memorable as they are fresh? To hear those voices, those couplets, those musical lines and to know that there are so many of us waiting for him to bring them to us, like a basket of just ripened tangerines on an arid summer day, exactly what we need at the exact moment we most need it