Posted on: January 7, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

The Parts That Showed is the sophomore album release by the Viking Moses an outfit that was initiated by Southern Missourian Brendon Massei in 2003. Their latest album was recorded on the Oldham family farm in central Kentucky by Paul Oldham (Will’s younger brother and bassist), featuring the talent of Spencer Kingman (of Spenking), John McCauley III (of Deer Tick), Cody Brant and Jacob Soto (of Flaspar) and Evelyn Weston.The trendsetting Daytrotter.com just posted their recording session with Viking Moses and those recordings are available at: http://daytrotter.com/article/1544/viking-moses.

The Parts That Showed was released by the Epiphysis label at year’s end and good press continues to appear despite it being released during the height of holiday CD release mania; a sampling of the latest is included below.

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Gorgeously recorded by Paul “brother of Will” Oldham, Parts is a you-are-there document of obsession and despair about a gold-hearted teen hooker and (fancifully) intended for Dolly Parton to sing. Brendon Massei (a.k.a. Viking Moses) has been doing the itinerant freak-folk thing for a decade-plus (Devendra Banhart included him on the now semi-legendary The Golden Apples of the Sun comp), and though his quaver can be a bit much, the songs are mercifully simpler and more tune-shaped than most modern acid-acoustic types. Joe Gross/Spin December

Brendon Massei (aka Viking Moses) sings with a voice that sometimes sounds exhausted, almost tragically depressive, until you realize that it’s a trick of style: He pulls back from each syllable, as if singing through a volume pedal. But that doesn’t even begin to touch on the moving, sad beauty of these slow country-ish songs. – John Adamian/Hartford Advocate 12/18

Viking Moses’s sophomore album – a 12 track story cycle about a teenage prostitute – is skeletal, strange, and beautiful. In part it’s also an homage to Dolly Parton, written in hopes that the southern songstress might one day sing the tunes herself. My fingers are crossed that Dolly opts in. Michelle Salzman/Under the Radar Year end issue

Recorded by Paul Oldham, assisted by members of Deertick, Spenking and Flaspar and inspired by country diva Dolly Parton, this second Viking Moses full-length exudes warmth and low-key charm. Jennifer Kelly/Popmatters.com 12/19

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