Orville Peck Shares 'Drift Away' Video
(Warner) Orville Peck releases his highly anticipated Appaloosa EP, a cinematic collection of songs about love and luck, action and ennui, youthful spirit and grown-man emotion. The seven-song set includes a brand new duet with Noah Cyrus and also arrives alongside a moving music video for the acclaimed lead single "Drift Away."
"Appaloosa - the spotted horse - is a collection of songs created to honour the power of singularity. A celebration of uniqueness and performance. An archive of love and fear," says Orville.
Also today, Peck kicks off his 7th Annual Rodeo, running all weekend in Pioneertown, CA, at Pappy & Harriet's, and featuring performances from Joy Oladokun, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Allison Russell, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and more. Beyond curating the entire experience, Peck will play a different set each day: cover songs tonight; headlining on Saturday with special guests; and winding down with an acoustic performance on Sunday. Info HERE.
Produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Jacob Portrait (King Princess, Alex G, Montell Fish) and rich with live, full-band instrumentation, Appaloosa feels nearly symphonic at times - grand, lush, and deeply moving. "Atchafalyaya" is no exception, reuniting Peck and Cyrus over an immersive swirl of fiddle, banjo, piano, pedal steel, mandolin, and more as they sing of moving on: "Goodbye Appaloosa, ride away / I'm headed north for New York state / Appalachia help me on my way / Bad luck can't follow me to stay, if I leave Atchafalaya by today."
Among Appaloosa's grander swings, Peck takes a tender turn with "Oh My Days." The ballad finds him leaning into unguarded confession, tracing the dizzy push-and-pull of new love. For someone who "never thought to wish one off for love," the track becomes Peck's first true love song, unfolding with a gentle, hopeful warmth.
A sense of escape - or a need to run from something - permeates Appaloosa, including on "Drift Away," where Peck uses the soaring chorus to invite us to "drift away with me." The just released music video brings the song's themes to life, focusing on a group of teens making their own fun in a grassy field strewn with abandoned junk and cut through by powerlines. They improvise temporary tattoos, blow on dandelion puffs, and wrestle in the weeds, before climbing into a rusty old pickup for a ride down a country road. In between, we get shots of Peck singing on a worn-down stage, silhouetted by a blue curtain. It's Harmony Korine meets David Lynch.
Another key Appaloosa inclusion: "Maybe This Time," made famous by Liza Minnelli in the 1972 film adaptation of Cabaret. Of course, Peck made his Broadway debut in a five-month, 128-show run of Cabaret this summer, drawing rave reviews along the way. VOGUE wrote, "He makes an absurdly successful Emcee - with an intuitive command of the line between desire and menace that rivals, if we're honest, that of Joel Grey and Alan Cumming." NPR called his portrayal of the role "beautiful and full of longing," while PLAYBILL gushed, "There's a certain power in a persona, and few modern musicians have wielded it as effectively as Orville Peck."
Peck also recently wrapped filming the star-studded 2026 Street Fighter movie, in which he plays the masked assassin Vega. Capping off an incredibly momentous year, Appaloosa is not just Peck's return to music, but also to solo songcraft. In recent months, he's teamed up with Cyrus for her single "Love Is a Canyon," and Kesha for "Tennessee" also featuring Hudson Mohawke and Tayla Parx. Notably, the latter was recorded for the just-released All Things Go: 10 Years album, with all proceeds benefitting Jack and Rachel Antonoff's The Ally Coalition.
And last year, of course, Peck dropped his eclectic and acclaimed duets album Stampede, featuring collaborations with Kylie Minogue and Diplo on "Midnight Ride," Beck on "Death Valley High," and Willie Nelson for a cover of "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other." The project pushes the boundaries of country by creating a unique, genre-blurring blend of styles with each artist on the guest list, which also includes Cyrus, Rateliff, Russell, Elton John, Teddy Swims, Midland, Margo Price, Molly Tuttle, and many, many more.
With Appaloosa, the man in the mask shows once again that he's always riding ahead of the herd, sharing songs that are as boldly vulnerable and heartfelt as they are gorgeously composed and sonically expansive. Saddle up for more from Orville Peck, soon.
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