Episode 18-28: Josh Ritter and Michael Perry and the Long Beds

About This Episode

Big Top gave a warm welcome to Indie songwriter Josh Ritter to
the tent. The New York Times says: “The literary-minded
songwriter Josh Ritter…recharges his music on his eighth studio
album, Sermon on the Rocks…Harking back to Bob Dylan, Bruce
Springsteen and maybe a little Mark Knopfler, Mr. Ritter has
always been a slinger of serious ideas and high-flown imagery.”
And, “A guileless, boy-next-door voice belies the depth and
ambition of Josh Ritter’s songs, whether he is confessing a
simple crush or following his thoughts on a long, Whitmanesque
incantation.”


This episode also features a tent appearance by Michael Perry and
the Long Beds. Though their music has been variously described as
‘country folk,’ ‘roughneck folk,’ ‘folk-twang,’ and Americana,
they prefer the description given by an audience member after a
benefit concert in Perry’s old high school gym: “You sound just
like Gordon Lightfoot… only zippier!” Nice – but there are
limits. “Zippy or not,” says Perry, “when ‘The Wreck of the
Edmund Fitzgerald’ comes on the radio, we sit down, shut up, and
listen.”
About Michael Perry

Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist
and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin.


Perry’s bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love
Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom, and his latest, Montaigne in Barn
Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy. His first book for
young readers, The Scavengers, was published in 2014 and first
novel for adult readers, The Jesus Cow, was published in May of
2015.


Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself
through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then
wandered into writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters
in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire
and rescue service and is an intermittent pig farmer. He hosts
the nationally-syndicated “Tent Show Radio,” performs widely as a
humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently
recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has
recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A
Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues.


Learn more about Michael and where to get his publications at
www.sneezingcow.com.


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