Rockie Rode – Concrete Cowboy
New York’s Rockie Rode is back to share new single “Concrete Cowboy.” The single is paired with a video by collaborator Joe Endo featuring a grainy compilation of boys in cowboy hats across the city’s bodegas and fire escapes.
Following her celebrated self-titled album Rockie, which Pitchfork described as “spooky and charming,” calling it, “an unassuming indie-pop record with the aura of a vintage cult classic,” Rode continues to build on the subtle and earnest country inflections of her debut. “Concrete Cowboy” carves out a world where the romanticism of an urban frontier meets the hazy, atmospheric pull of intangible connections lost and found. It’s sung from a point of view that feels as universal as it’s vividly specific, and is as good an entry point as any into the ephemeral and poignant world of Rockie Rode.
Blending these textures with folk songwriting, Rockie Rode crafts songs steeped in themes of self-invention, disillusionment, and longing. Her work captures the restless, searching nature of youth, where romantic ideals meet the realities of getting by. On “Concrete Cowboy,” Rode sketches a portrait of a wayward city dweller, embodying a distinctly modern, unvarnished take on the cowboy mythos: “Don’t ask him where he’s from he’s got no answers…he’s a concrete cowboy who doesn’t give a damn, with enough deli weed and tallboys.”
Speaking about the new single Rockie shares, “I’m a New Yorker but my biggest idols are female country/rock singer-songwriters from the 70’s-90s: Lucinda Williams, Linda Ronstadt, Emmy Lou Harris. There’s this watered-down nostalgic Americana hypnosis that we are collectively trapped in, but I think a lot of people aren’t getting the point. Those old country songs are about real heartbreak. Meanwhile, the most heartbreaking thing these guys wearing cowboy boots in Bushwick are doing is pretending they’re bisexual.”
The weathered idealism of Rode’s writing against her haunting vocals is disarming. As Pitchfork concluded, “I’m prepared to believe in Rockie Rode the whole time.”
Next month Rockie will be performing at Pitchfork Paris and London before heading to LA for And Always Forever festival.
11/4 – London, UK @ Pitchfork London
11/5 – Paris, FR @ – Pitchfork Paris
11/8 Los Angeles, CA @ And Always Forever Festival
#rockierode