Born in Idaho, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter recorded and released his self-titled debut in 1999 after graduating from Oberlin College with a self-created "American History through Narrative Folk Music" major. Described by Amazon as "the most under-accorded American musical genius," Ritter has been praised for his beautifully spare songwriting textured with complex imagery and simple lyrics, which has drawn comparisons to Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, and Leonard Cohen. At first glance, Josh Ritter's Artists Den performance might have taken place in his native Idaho, against a landscape of rolling green hills and grazing bison. However, the enormous animals behind the band were stuffed. The show's venue was actually in the North American Mammal Hall of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, in the spirit of Ritter's major label debut, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Surrounded by grizzly bears and wolves, hundreds of die-hard fans packed the diorama-filled hall as Ritter delivered a full-on rock concert - complete with a five-piece horn section - that kept the room dancing all night.
