Rose City Band, the transcendental roots rock project of Wooden Shjips/Moon Duo mastermind Ripley Johnson, returned last month with news of their third album in three years, Earth Trip. Today he’s following up lead single “Lonely Places” with album opener “Silver Roses.”

The track is a sort of slowcore country ballad about cutting his tour short to return home at the dawn of the pandemic. “Called down off the road/ Free falling in the rain,” Johnson sings sedately, between rising waves of pedal steel. It seems like it will work wonders as scene-setting for the album’s journey into the heart of nature. Hear it below.

Earth Trip is out 6/25 on Thrill Jockey.