Josh Ritter with a Classical Twist

I just heard about violinist Hilary Hahn's collaboration with folk musician Josh Ritter while listening to NPR's Bryant Park Project podcast. According to BPP, Ritter and Hahn have been playing joint bills to audiences of half classical fans and half folk fans. Hahn improvises over Ritter's songs and Ritter plays with Hahn on Paganini's Cantabile.

The moral of the story? Classical musicians can school the humble singer-songwriters any day. But wait. We already knew that. The real moral of the story is that the rap mash-up is not the only way to combine two dissimilar genres. "Girl in the War," featuring Hahn's improvisation, is a really nice addition to Ritter's simple strumming and melody. Check it out below, along with Paganini's Cantabile. Volume on the videos is inexplicably low, so as Rage Against the Machine said... "TURN THAT SHIT UP!"

"Girl in the War"


Paganini's Catabile