With a personal take on country and folk that is distinctly California in nature, singer and songwriter
Carly Ritter wouldn't have been out of place in the 1960s pop and folk world of artists like
Jackie DeShannon or
Buffy Sainte-Marie, and, as a graduate of Vassar, she has been as likely to cite Soren Kierkegaard as an influence on her songwriting as
Hank Williams,
Woody Guthrie,
Bob Dylan,
Leonard Cohen,
Joni Mitchell, or any of the other likely candidates. The daughter of actor John Ritter and the granddaughter of
Tex Ritter, her childhood was one where creativity was encouraged. She was raised in Los Angeles and attended high school in Santa Monica, then left for New York following graduation, attending Vassar and spending her junior year abroad in Scotland. There she discovered and began to study Scottish folk music, eventually tracing it forward to the kitchen-sink approach of American folk music. Returning to the States, she finished school and drifted back west to California, where she reconnected with childhood friend and musician
Joachim Cooder, the son of
Ry Cooder. Together they began to shape her songwriting and sound. Her debut album, the self-titled
Carly Ritter, which included guest contributions not only from
Joachim but also his father
Ry, as well as
Robert Francis and
Francis' sister
Juliette Commagere (a member of the synth pop band
Hello Stranger), appeared from Vanguard Records in 2013. ~ Steve Leggett