Storyteller Series / Josh Ritter's "Another New World"

Some songs tell stories just as vivid and intricate as any film or TV show. The Storyteller Series highlights those special pieces of music with lyrics that captivate the audience from beginning to end.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Seeing Josh Ritter perform a few months ago at the Music Box was one of the most joyous musical experiences I have ever had.  Ritter didn’t take off his charming ear-to-ear smile for the entire performance, playing his acoustic guitar with such gusto if someone had told me that this was the only show he had ever and would ever play I would have believed it.  The man is clearly a master wordsmith, but one song in particular stood out to me that night: “Another New World.”Off Ritter’s most recent album, So Runs The World Away, “Another New World” was one of the few melancholy tunes he did that evening (overall I prefer his more upbeat stuff) and it captivated me the way live performers rarely do - and for over seven minutes.  In it an explorer (sort of an alternate-universe Christopher Columbus) sets sail on his beloved ship, the “Annabel Lee” to find a new world.  The journey, however, ends in disaster as the ship runs into icy waters and although it’s not specified, it seems that the crew has all died.  He has no other choice but to chop up the ship, piece by piece, to keep himself warm.The first super cool thing that jumped out to me was of course, the ship’s name: “Annabel Lee.”  Now I don’t have official confirmation on whether or not the reference to the Edgar Allan Poe character was intentional, but she was strongly tied to the sea and froze to death.  The strongest indicator of the connection though, I found in an article by The Music Court, who pointed out that the trochaic rhythm in Ritter’s guitar-picking emulates that of Poe’s poem.Regardless of its English pedigree, I was swept away on the song’s journey, carried along as it ebbed and flowed. It was like a chilling wind passed through the theatre.  Ritter was delicate on the strings, becoming a different person than the lively chap bouncing around at the beginning of the night.  He quietly led the whole audience into an incredibly dark and melancholy place and we were more than willing to follow.

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Lyrics

The leading light of the age all wondered amongstthemselves what I would do nextAfter all that I'd found in my travels aroundthe world was there anything else left?"Gentlemen", I said, "I've studied the maps""And if what I'm thinking is right""There's another new world at the top of the world""For whoever can break through the ice"I looked round the room in that way I once hadand I saw that they wanted beliefSo I said "All I've got are my guts and my God"then I paused,"and the Annabelle Lee"Oh the Annabelle Lee, I saw their eyes shinethe most beautiful ship in the seaMy Nina, My Pinta, My Santa MariaMy beautiful Annabelle LeeThat spring we set sail as the crows waved from shoreand on board the crew waved their hatsBut I never had family just the Annabelle Leeso I didn't have cause to look backI just set the course north and I studied the chartsand toward dark I drifted toward sleepand I dreamed of the fine deep harbor I'd findpast the ice for my Annabelle LeeAfter that it got colder the world got quietit was never quite day or quite nightAnd the sea turned the color of sky turned the colorof sea turned the color of ice'Til at last all around us was fastnessone vast glassy desert of arsenic whiteAnd the waves that once lifted ussifted instead into drifts against Annabelle's sidesThe crew gathered closer at first for the comfortbut each morning would bring a new setof the tracks in the snow leading over the edgeof the world 'til I was the only one leftAfter that it gets cloudy but it feels like I lay therefor days maybe for monthsBut Annabelle held me the two of us happyjust to think back on all we had doneWe talked of the other worlds we'd discoveras she gave up her body to meAnd as I chopped up her mainsail for timberI told her of all that we still had to seeAs the frost turned her moorings to nine-tailand the wind lashed her sides in the coldI burned her to keep me alive every nightin the lover's embrace of her holdI won't call it rescue what brought me here back tothe old world to drink and declineAnd to pretend that the search for another new worldwas well-worth the burning of mineBut sometimes at night in my dreams comes the singingof some known tropical birdAnd I smile in my sleep thinking Annabelle Leehas finally made it to another new world