Ritt Deitz

Ritt's fifth album, POP, is a great collection of songs that show a more rocking/pop side to Deitz' songwriting. The songs pop, funk and slink through classic rock hooks and jams. As is his habit, Ritt invited friends and family members to the recording sessions and clocks in with his most organic feeling disc to date.

Ritt Deitz releases his fifth full-length CD of original and traditional songs, Upstream, on Uvulittle Records. Ritt spent the winter in the studio with longtime collaborators bassist Joe Meisel and guitarist / dobro player Craig Totten, sons Wilder (piano, percussion) and Mitch (percussion) and hammered dulcimer player Dave Foss. Singer-songwriter Sara Pace guests on backing vocals on four songs, including a lovely duet version of the Southern gospel standard "Wayfaring Stranger." Ritt's neighbor Andy Ewen, frontman of the Madison psychoblues quartet Honor Among Thieves, sits in on "Cloudy," an early Dire-Straits-like meditation on living by a road the highway department keeps widening every few years.

Collected (1999-2000)
Since STAY is now out of print and HILLBILLY will soon be, Ritt has put together a collection of favorites from his first 2 albums for Uvulittle Records. Included is a new single, "Shake," on which Deitz plays all the instruments.

In addition to Deitz on acoustic guitar and vocals, a wide cast of players including Steve Burke, Joe Meisel, Jay Moran and Bif Blumfumgagnge round out the tracks with piano, dobro, electric guitar, lap steel, accordion and violin for a set of acoustic roots rock that ranges from rockin' to meditative.

The result is lovely. It's like being at a Deitz show where he plays nothing but classics. A must have for fans and newcomers alike.

AFTER THE MOUNTAINS is Ritt's latest batch of beautiful, straight-ahead songs.

This is solid acoustic roots rock.

The songs move seamlessly from single, lingering melodies to the train-like stomp riffs that fans know from Ritt's vibrant live shows. Like this Kentuckian when he's on stage, Ritt's recordings are the fruit of years of playing - traditional music and rock and roll, in band after band, with pals, family and the occasional rival.

Ritt Deitz's third CD, PLEASURE ISLE, is a story of pools, sex, trains, rivers, dogs, barges, babies, Moses, small hands, and softball.

Madison's Isthmus calls the release, "well-wrought folk-rock" from a weathered band of old friends, players Ritt has long shared stages and studios with.

Rhythm writes that "Deitz has one of those voices that rings with authenticity..."

This album is something of a song in itself. The music comes from a very honest and grounded space. It will stay with you.

"Stay, his second release, is full of gritty, intelligent folk with songs that are, by turns, sweet, gentle, and smoldering. Dietz's warm baritone and confident songwriting are a perfect match, like a welcome campfire on a chilly fall night." -- The Riverside

Features HILLBILLY veterans Joe Meisel and Steve Burke, with guest appearances by harper Turner Collins and Reptile Palace Orchestra violinist Biff Blumfumgagnge. STAY grows out of a unique sense of place and time, and offers compelling reasons to live by one's words and music.