Great day in the morning!!! After running a few options by the committee, it was decided that “Great day in the morning!!!” is the appropriate response to getting good news right after you wake up (assuming you’re waking up in the morning). So today when I woke up to find that Josh Ritter had announced a new EP of rare and unreleased songs, I shouted loud enough that my neighbors could safely assume I was happy. He put out a single along with the announcement, which you can see below. The EP is titled See Here, I Have Built You A Mansion and it comes out August 28th.

Josh has been a big part of my Coronavirus coping method. For a while he was doing live shows every week from his home. The coziness of his living room bathed in candlelight providing a bit of comfort for an hour or so. Then he switched to live painting, which is quite different but still very nice. He’s given his fans a great opportunity to get up close and personal despite being so far apart. Oh, and he generated well over $100,000 for Feeding America and various local organizations to help people during this pandemic.

“Time Is Wasting” is a quick-tempo love song about a bad boy gone good for the girl of his dreams. He sings about that feeling of nervous energy you get when you just can’t wait to be with someone. Not exactly a leap if you’ve been listening to Ritter for the last twenty-plus years, but his writing is so good that it always feels fresh and new. I love this second verse:

I used to be bad people used to get hurt

So bad that better would’ve still’ve been the worst

But you took me to the garden girl you took me to the light

You took me to the mountain and you gave my heart sight

I don’t know if there was a plan in place or if Ritter just decided that people needed something new to brighten their days right now, but I’m very thankful that he’s offering everyone a little bit of sunshine in this dark time. If you’re interested you can pre-order the EP on vinyl or CD. He also added some new merch to go along with this EP and I think it’s very cool and funny. If anyone wants to buy me this glass, please reach out and I’ll send you my address.