The Nashville Feed

Josh Ritter might have the happiest stage presence of any musician touring today.

For all the comparisons to Bob Dylan, who rarely gives an audience anything better than upbeat indifference, Ritter defies the dour, unknowable songwriter.

While navigating through heartbreak and murder ballads, he always returned to a blissful grin.

He regularly broke into laughter while telling stories about the amount of skin he saw displayed around Vanderbilt and potatoes in his basement that look like Dick Cheney. Not there’s anything wrong with an Idaho native collecting potatoes.

On the first of two sold-out nights at the Belcourt Theatre, Ritter and his band didn’t race so much as expertly shift gears through spare ballads, some brief forays close into Strokes territory, a few fiddle tunes and Ritter playing one tune entirely in the dark. The diversity onstage was staggering, with band member shuffling on and off, acoustics and electrics traded off.

In full disclosure, I have to commit Americana heresy here - I don’t own anything from Ritter. Aside from a few promo and compilation cuts, I know him mainly by reputation.

He showed how well he earned it on Tuesday.

The touching songs – “Temptation of Adam” and “Empty Hearts” - stuck the best, although shaky moments were few for this tour-tested outfit. Even with his most vulnerable lyrics, it never took long for Ritter to return to smiling.

Ritter and multi-instrumentalist Zack Hickman (sporting an amazing handlebar ‘stache) stepped away from the microphones and amplifiers for an acoustic interlude. The power could have gone out, and Ritter’s music would have chugged along without a flinch.

Had she chosen to just talk for an hour, opener Ingrid Michaelson would have still pleased the audience with her magnificent stage presence. Switching between piano and guitar, she never stopped entertaining (the guy next to me compared her to Juno). Her voice propelled songs such as “Overboard” and “Die Alone,” although not all were as memorable. Still, her transcendent banter left me craving more.