The Magpie Salute release uplifting song For The Wind

The Magpie Salute have released For The Wind, the second track to be taken from their upcoming album High Water I. This follows the release of Send Me An Omen last month. High Water I is out on August 10. 

“For The Wind is a song that took a long way around to come to fruition," says Rich Robinson. "I wrote it years ago, and it took the right band to do it justice. Now it has a great home with Magpie." 

“It's like this person can see that every terrible thing in his world has been reversed, defeated and left behind," adds singer John Hogg. "It's not hopeful or expectant, it's more than that... a full-on realisation described by one of the victors."

The Magpie Salute formed in 2016 as a ten-piece line-up for a show in Woodstock, New York, but are now down to a six-piece featuring former Black Crowes Robinson, Marc Ford and Sven Pipien, plus vocalist Hogg, keyboard player Matt Slocum and drummer Joe Magistro.

“It’s the recontextualization of playing with one another," says Robinson. “When I was putting this thing together, I was thinking about how even though we may not have played for almost a decade, it just comes back immediately. The chemistry is unexplainable. 

"Of course, I’m the same guy who played with the Black Crowes and wrote all of those songs, but this is a different context for myself, Marc, and Sven. It’s the convergence of three different worlds and eras for me. 

"We’re all here together in this one place. Simultaneously, it’s amazing for Marc and Sven to play with Joe and Matt and John to be in the middle of it all. For me, that was really cool to witness. This is what I wanted to do.”

"The more time we spend together, the more I realise how much of my life is involved with Rich,” says Ford. “This is probably the best band I’ve ever been in. As a player, it challenges me. There’s something beyond us that we’re agreeing with. This music wants us to be a part of it. 

"Rich and I just agreed that whatever it took for us to drop our bullshit—so be it. That way, we could let this happen in our lives. It’s better when we’re together than when we’re not. We’re better friends than we’ve ever been. I’ve learned more about him in the last year than I had in the past thirty. Rich and I have been able to pick up this fragmented broken piece of a very bizarre life together and unite as grown men and say, ‘Wow, that was something. Let’s see what we can do with it.’"

High Water I is released on August 10. The Magpie Salute play London's Oslo venue on the same day.