Hailing from the unlikely, small town of Moscow, Idaho, twenty-nine year old Josh Ritter crafts songs that are a rare gift of natural, intuitive beauty. Publications like The New York Times, Details, USA Today, and the Associated Press scrambled to describe what made Josh's music so stunning and, in the process, invoked comparisons to a young Springsteen or Leonard Cohen.

Josh Ritter's latest album, The Animal Years, is the kind of breakthrough effort that will cause listeners new to the 29 year-old singer-songwriter's work to wonder where this guy has been all their lives - and prompt his passionate fan base to just say, well, we told you so. Following the independent release of Golden Age of Radio (2002) and Hello Starling (2003), Ritter was championed by critics in publications ranging from the New York Times to Details Magazine, hailed by fellow artists who shared stages with him, and name-checked by anyone who happened to catch him on tour during the years he doggedly worked the road. The music-savvy citizens of the Republic of Ireland christened him a major star well before anyone in the states even knew he had a record out.

On The Animal Years, his V2 Records debut, Ritter more than lives up to the buzz. He embraces the topical while reaching for the timeless, resulting in an album that's firmly rooted in right now but guaranteed to resonate for years to come.