A special note from the creator of the Fansite...
In the Spring of 2003, I started a simple, single web page devoted to without a doubt the best kept secret in music and perhaps the next greatest artist of our generation, Josh Ritter. In the years that followed, the Josh Ritter Fansite grew to a site more than 60 pages deep, and was truly the site “for the fans, by the fans.” Concert photos, live videos, pictures with fans, live mp3’s for download, message board, exclusive features and stories, the official Street Team, and much much more are found here - and it became the official, collaborative sister site of joshritter.com.
But this was a time before the emergence of - or at least the popularity of - video sharing sites like Youtube and Vimeo, photo sites like Flickr and Photobucket, the social networks like Myspace and Facebook, and even personal blogging sites. Fans have been empowered like never before, and most of the things found on the Josh Ritter Fansite were now being created, posted, and shared across the web by enthusiastic fans themselves. Awesome. But it has indeed left a good part of the original Fansite behind in its dust.
I’m proud to have been on an amazing journey because of the Fansite - one that has taken me from the front row of a small Josh Ritter show in a New Jersey bar, to the front seat of Josh’s tour bus on the other side of the world. Josh and his band have embraced their fans with as much love as fans have embraced their music, and the Fansite has been living proof.
I do continue on this journey with the music of Josh Ritter, and for that reason the Josh Ritter Fansite will live on. However, the site is going through a trimming and reorganizing to include just the treats still not found anywhere else on the web: Josh’s official Street Team and the Fansite’s special access to Josh and the music that brings my fellow fans exclusive photos (like the one here and on the front page) - and special features (such as Josh’s “Backstage Recordings”).
So, as always, thank you for visiting, and for spreading the word about the music of Josh Ritter...
Doug Rice
(March 2009)
