Digial Pick Première: Arthur and Galahad

A few years ago, Michael Arthur—an illustrator whose music-video work was included in the recent New York Times series “All-Nighters”—met the musician Josh Ritter at a downtown bar. Ritter had seen Arthur’s video for his own band, Balthrop, Alabama, and the two discussed a possible collaboration. The result, débuting here, is “Galahad,” a previously unreleased song by Ritter, paired with drawings by Arthur and animation by John D. Ivy. Ritter’s original concept was to release the song as a single, with a Kenny Rogers cover as a b-side. “That notion fell by the wayside, but inspired my idea,” Arthur says. “I originally conceived of Galahad as a sort of origin story for the fellow who sits across from the Gambler in the Kenny Rogers song, which merged with the idea of Kenny Rogers as God…. Not sure what it all means, but I liked it.”