Crosses by Viking Moses

I met Emma for the first time in Chicago, 2001. Our friend Jason introduced us over pizza on a cold and rainy winter night. We didn’t see each other, didn’t speak a word again until the end of the following summer, when we ran into each other in Bloomington, Indiana. We fell in love on the railroad tracks, and didn’t part for three months.

“Crosses” is my story of our joining, my bowed head to the power that brought us together this brief moment in our lives, for the love we learned, and for the challenge to part ways and move on.

The first two songs on this album were our own renditions of church songs we’d learned when we were little. She showed me “I Love the Fishes...” and I showed her “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”. We changed the words around a bit and added our own verses to make the songs ours. We’d borrow our friend Ryan’s toy guitar and duck into congregations every now and again and sing these together. We painted our names on his guitar.

“Country Gown” and “My Husband’s Hand” were written while we traveled together. We spoke our own language and celebrated our own holidays. “Dancing By The Water Day” was a holiday we came up with on November 1st, while we danced and watched boats go by on the Merrimac River in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

The writing of the rest of this album started when Emma and I parted for the first time, and I stayed with a family in a small village in the Rheinland of Germany. “Whet Stones At Both My Sides” and “Delighted” were written there. The song “Little Arms” was finished the following spring in Las Vegas, Nevada while I was under the care of my own family there.

I went to Chicago, soon after. Spencer gave me shelter, where I wrote ”Crosses” and “Fingernail Moon”. Kate found me work at a tavern called the Hideout. While I was working as a runner there, they offered us a show. The three of us quickly and carelessly threw together the arrangements of these songs as you’ll hear them now. For this show, I used Ryan’s toy guitar, the same toy guitar Emma and I painted our names on, the same toy guitar we took to the church. Spencer played the upright piano in the back of the bar. We all sang.

We loved the recording of this performance so much, we asked our friend Kris to record it arranged and delivered the same way. The Hideout was very kind, and allowed us to bring the huge tape machine in to the bar before the doors opened one day, and record this album.

To deliver these songs to you as honest and heartfelt as we could, we recorded them live to tape, (the only overdubs being piano and bass for sound and location reasons.)

Thank you for taking the time to find something new, or if you were like me, allowing something new to find you!

truly,
Brendon Massei

vikingmoses.com