“Change of Time” by Josh Ritter
You’ve got a couple of options for listening to Josh Ritter’s “Change of Time”: the video or the MP3 linked above. The video features Ritter performing the song solo, something not out of character for the folk troubadour. Since he started releasing albums over a decade ago, it’s never been a stretch for him to do the solo thing on occasion. When he played Saskatoon last month, the band left the stage while he trotted out a few classics with just him and the old acoustic. The song stands up well to that treatment, and Ritter can sell it well that way.
The difference between the just-Josh live versions and the album tracks has never been obvious than on his latest album, So Runs the World Away, so much so that you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t take a listen to the MP3. “Change of Time” is a great song, showing Ritter’s typical lyrical talent to great effect. In the studio, however, it gets a really unexpected arrangement that touches on ethereal beauty by the end.