Ben Rogers – “Wild Roses” (video) (premiere)

Canadian Ben Rogers has one of those treasured, whiskey-soaked, deep, rough voices that work so perfectly in country music and Americana. Rogers pairs that with a stellar band of musicians who help create the barren, prairie landscapes and the vast spaces of North America’s west. Right up front and crucial to the band’s sound is that mournful pedal steel — surely one of the most cinematic instruments ever devised — played with virtuosic ease by Matt Kelly (City and Color). Last August Ben Rogers released his second album, The Bloodred Yonder, and his new single is that album’s lead track, “Wild Roses”.

Rogers tells PopMatters that he “wanted to write something that gets under your skin the way a song like ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’ does. Something visceral and infectious. I find the story of Cain and Abel fascinating. After I read it I had a lot of questions. So I thought, what the hell, I’ll write a song about it. I wanted to explore the forbidden love story not told in the Biblical version told from the killer’s perspective. It’s a fictional account of the origins of mankind that provides an explanation as to why the human race is as violent and depraved as it is today.?