PREMIERE | Viking Moses, "Rough Rider"

Brendon Massei, aka Viking Moses, alongside guitar; photographed by Luca Giorietto.

Baltimore tunesmith Brendon Massei, otherwise known as Viking Moses, is well familiar with the dusty road touring circuits of the world. A fixture of the songwriting community now for decades, the artist readies the new album Cruel Child with a premiere listen to the harsh trails and trials of life ballad "Rough Rider" that gallops out toward the grand sunset lit horizon.

Viking Moses navigates the audience across the inhospitable terrain of intertwined and endless interstates that set the scene for “Rough Rider”. Massei updates the open highway outlaw tale into a new derelict trucker’s swan song that speaks as a testament to the path of persistence. The song moves like a modern country western outlaw odyssey that begins with a breakout from a holdup scene that leaps for the levers and handles that keep our entire psyches held together in the sometimes tragic trajectories of life’s multi-branched time lines. Fleeting romantic interludes are alluded to as the restrained arrangement is organized in a rhythmic sequence of lovers' sport as "Rough Rider" illustrates a communion of bodies in congress. Brendon paints portraits of passing thoughts that run wild in the heat of passions that seeks to embrace the other even tighter and closer to fight the fear that they might slip away forever.

Viking Moses’s Brendon Massei provided the following thoughts on the new single:

“Rough Rider” is the 4th installment from Cruel Child, “Rough Rider” refers to the textured prophylactics found in truck stop restrooms. While this song embraces carnal appetite, it is about hesitation and frustration. We were six young solo-artists on separate tours, women and boys. We stayed up late after a powerful evening of making music. We watched Prince’s Purple Rain, then we each retired to separate beds, alone. Recorded live in a single take with three microphones, “Rough Rider” is raw and fierce with increasing drive and complexity.

Viking Moses’s Cruel Child will be available April 5 via Epifo Music.