my uber concert buddy, james, was unable to attend the show and all my last minute attempts to procure alternate james fill-ins failed. so i had two options: A) actually attend a concert with my husband and pay a sitter, but arrive late to the show and miss ritter. or B) take the money i would have paid the sitter and take the kids to their third all-ages show. (first being glen phillips, dan wilson, and garrison starr and the second being nickel creek.)
if you know me at all, you know the option i chose. duh.
it was kinda rough seeing ritter as the opener. his set was painfully, agonizingly short. but, since the majority of the audience was there to see the man my friend k calls "mr. showtunes" it turned out to be easy access to the ritter.
damn hair flopped in my face - gah!
the girls and i went down and said hi to josh in between his set and jamie's. he is quite possibly the warmest, nicest, most well-mannered singer i have ever met. he talked to both of the girls and gave me a monster bear hug afterwards.
he asked the girls their names when cheyenne asked him to sign the cd, and this is what he wrote:
we left about halfway through jamie's set so we could get the girls to bed (school night, waw) and on the way out, josh was still standing in the lobby talking to people. cheyenne had picked up a flyer for josh's next show, and told me she wanted him to sign it. i told her that was fine, but she would have to ask him herself. she stood behind the other people standing there, and he saw her and said "hi cheyenne" and she handed him the flyer and asked if he would sign it. he wrote, " Cheyenne... One day we will meet again...Love, Josh Ritter." i got another hug out of the deal too.
side note: the man wears really nice suits. how he doesn't melt on stage is beyond me.
fyi for my chicago peeps (and mrs. labeef-ryzin if you will be in town in february) josh will be playing a seated solo acoustic show at park west on sunday, february 11. i will be at that concert, join me.
