Sermon on the Rocks

Sermon on the Rocks
Studio album by Josh Ritter
Released	October 16, 2015
Recorded	The Parlor, New Orleans, January 5-17, 2015
Genre	Folk rock
Length	44:41
Label	Pytheas Recordings
Producer	Trina Shoemaker, Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter chronology
The Beast in Its Tracks (2013) Sermon on the Rocks (2015)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]

Sermon on the Rocks is the eighth full-length studio album, by singer/songwriter Josh Ritter. It was released October 16, 2015 on Pytheas Recordings. Ritter described the record as "messianic oracular honky-tonk." NPR's Stephen Thomson said the album contains "some of Ritter's slipperiest, nimblest wordplay"^[3] and Jonathan Bernstein of Rolling Stone commented that the record used "Eighties textures" and "vivid character sketches" to yield a very different result from its predecessor, The Beast in Its Tracks.^[2]

Track listing

All songs written by Josh Ritter

1. "Birds of the Meadow" – 3:15
2. "Young Moses" – 4:08
3. "Henrietta, Indiana" – 3:43
4. "Getting Ready To Get Down" – 3:16
5. "Seeing Me Round" – 4:58
6. "Where the Night Goes" – 3:49
7. "Cumberland" – 2:17
8. "Homecoming" – 5:31
9. "The Stone" – 3:55
10. "A Big Enough Sky" – 2:47
11. "Lighthouse Fire" – 3:12
12. "My Man on a Horse (is Here)" – 3:50

Personnel

Musicians

• Josh Ritter — acoustic and electric guitar, lead and harmony vocals
• Zackariah Hickman — upright and electric bass, acoustic and classical guitar, percussion, vocals
• Matt Barrick — drums, percussion, vocals
• Sam Kassirer — piano, electric piano, clavinet, synthesizer, Hammond and Farfisa organs, percussion, vocals
• Josh Kaufman — acoustic, electric, 12-string Rickenbacker and slide guitar, electric mandolin, bongos, vocals
• Trina Shoemaker — percussion

Production

• Recorded at The Parlor, New Orleans, January 5-17, 2015
• Produced by Trina Shoemaker and Josh Ritter
• Recorded by Trina Shoemaker with Eric Heigel
• Mixed by Trina Shoemaker
• Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering
• Assistant Mastering Engineer: Maria Rice

References

1. Deming, Mark. Sermon on the Rocks at AllMusic. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
2. Jonathan Bernstein, "Sermon on the Rocks" (review), Rolling Stone, October 29, 2015.
3. Stephen Thomson, "Review: Josh Ritter, 'Sermon On The Rocks'", NPR, October 7, 2015.