Carly Ritter

It may be surprising to hear that actor John Ritter’s daughter is a formidable country and folk-pop singer. But then consider that Carly’s grandfather is none other than country great Tex Ritter, and things fall into place. Ritter has fine help, too. Here, the husband-wife production team of Joachim Cooder (drums, piano) and Juliette Commagere (keyboards, electric guitars, backing vocals) protect the music and bring in Juliette’s brother Robert Francis and Joachim’s father Ry Cooder to complete the studio band. Another friend and frequent collaborator with the aforementioned, Martin Pradler, added instrumentation and mixing skills. All this would be in vain if Ritter didn’t possess a charming voice perfect for these modern songs of great integrity, whether it’s the sleek, pretty pop of “It Is Love” (which Ritter says was inspired by the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard) or Jerry Lynn Williams’ “Save Your Love,” a song for which her A&R man had been seeking a singer for 30 years. He finally decided Ritter and Francis would be the ones to work it out as a stirring duet.