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Sugar and Anise

by Jack Daw

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1.
Cedar Box 03:49
I can't see the sun but I still can find a light In the sky, in the sky In heaven any time I like and Gazing through a hazy glass I falter And step down Into the grass that I know has to be Under all this snow Younger lives with flashing knives and Slick black blood under my ribs can slide under An old and dusty yet gossamer Curtain curving certain in its movements guided by so much heavy wind Well every old folk song I love Ends with heartbreak or in a cedar box There's no abstraction or any cure and if That's the end of all of this then I'm not sure that I want to call myself a Folk singer Jumping down into a well after running from this heavy Panting hell of words and phrases that held my hand To its chest and At the bottom I realize all I could have learned From that man At the bottom I realize maybe I misjudged that man and At the bottom I realize that I want to consume An entire galaxy At the bottom I realize That was no devil chasing me At the bottom I realized that was No devil Maybe I'll call myself an artist or conscious mind or devil or a driver or revolver or just another chump who got chased into a well Well every old folk song I love Ends with heartbreak or in a cedar box There's no abstraction or any cure and if That's the end of all of this then I'm not sure that I want to call myself a folk singer Well every old folk song I love Ends with heartbreak or in a cedar box There's no abstraction or any cure and if That's the end of all of this then I'm not sure that I want to call myself a folk singer
2.
Crow Song 03:50
Tonight I'm watching as three hundred crows Condense themselves into a triptych of pines As the last of the sunlight trickles from the sky It seems like the world has straightened its spine (x2) In my right hand I clutch my binoculars hard Spying as the birds flutter and roost into bed My left hand is free but extended straight out Trying to feel feathers on a black crow's head (x2) Starting the long trek to warmth and a smile That takes my mind and makes me a fool If I were more inclined to divine me a fortune I swear that I would see it in my scrying pool (x2) If I were a crow I would tear up my throat Slinging songs from my maw hoping your ears will take note If I were a pine tree I would give your wings A place to rest for the night on my limbs On my limbs I've been up all night staring at the moon Weighty breath on my chest in the cool white light If I were asleep I know I'd dream of just this Sensing your pulse all through the night (x2) In my right hand I clutch the thought of the crows And their conversations, beautiful prose My left hand is free but arm is secure Tucked tightly under vertebrae rows (x3) If I were a crow I would tear up my throat Slinging songs from my maw hoping your ears will take note If I were a pine tree I would give your wings A place to rest for the night on my limbs On my limbs
3.
Oh, Tear Me 03:48
When languishing inside you'll feel the time Physically as pressures rise In waxy channels next to blood beside the table Peering in and pounding out Towering seamless no amount Of pale mint silhouettes could ever faze me Someone whom I've never known has passed Last goodbye after one first glance Hunting down these floating blues on photoreceptors But gorgeous guile and burning bile Slide inside as structures smile Crumbling down and smoking through genuine gazes Well I don't know what to expect From lorn fueled longing I only want to Hear the people passing Here's to time I hope to find And space to fill as cards divine Calling out with catching breath Drooping vines encircle my Wilting arms too weak to find The strength to reach the fruit hanging heavy Constellated flames perch like a moth Inside my eyes reflecting rough Swaying lights divided across symmetric chasms Well I don't know what to expect From lorn fueled longing I only want to Hear the people passing Here's to time I hope to find And space to fill as cards divine Calling out with catching breath I need a deluge (x2)
4.
Moose Song 03:41
I lock horns with another moose Antlers jutting forth like broken bottle shards As my son looks at me in the light of the moon I wish I could see him in the light of the stars that Observe and conquer between respective paths As the rain pooled on the scraggly grass I watch my short breath steaming out through Bursts of rage and hurting I try to stand last A bone strikes between my own And the pain holds me like a clenched fist I always thought that I would kneel alone I hide my eyes and I am thankful for the mist that Obscures and counters the sight of myself through His eyes so clean and legs seeking strength My gleaming self soon will be a chamber A chamber with the loam meeting me and luring to stay I cannot hold my warmth anymore Dusting the pines with soft as silk snow Cracking the ground and loosening the land I want to know where my boy will go My lungs stop pulsing My legs stop twitching My hollow chest will not stand tall and full
5.
Love Song 01:26
I stroll down to throw rocks in the ocean Just the sand and I and the salt That flows in on the unending motion Of the wind rushing in from the sea There is movement in the light Spinning through the air of night Swaying, trembling across the sky A moonbeam starts to drift closer to me I stare out across the water At the satellite's first born daughter of the night She is as gleaming as anyone can be She offers me an ethereal hand And talks with me as my toes are in the sand And hers are in the atmosphere
6.
Untitled 03:40
God’s whiskey slid down my throat last night as I learned These high beams don’t reflect well in red blood No shimmer or dance of light can hit my eyes And blunt force trauma never did me any good But these cowboys and these demons still milk me for what I have Out on that old McLeod Peak Chiming in sequence I know I’m just death’s boy I'm dancing as my veins leak Call off your feral men please I can’t take this any more These cloudy nights are always pressuring With the fog that pushed me down until my Head was level with the town The sparkling lights of Missoula But these hellhounds and these pine trees still track me down tonight Out on the old McLeod Peak Filtering the moonlight I know that they can see Through my skin already so weak I tried to bury the hatchet but it ended up in my spine I plummet down and find the soil again With the fog that pushed me down until my Head was level with the town The sparkling lights But these hellhounds and these pine trees still track me down tonight Out on the old McLeod Peak Chiming in sequence I know I’m just death’s boy I'm dancing as my veins leak God’s whiskey slid down my throat last night as I learned These high beams don’t reflect well through the woods I can only act on the compass that flows in my blood But a blade in the back never did me any good And blunt force trauma never did me no good
7.
Gnaw 02:48
I took a bite out of My only daughter in the freezing air leaving Stains on skin with my sharp and sheltered little mares I am slicing sideways through arteries to home My jaw cuts swiftly through solid white bone When the first warm days of spring sound off Like daffodils opening after a drought It's time for gazing into the sky for too long And daydreams hazing the strong air They seem to shout at me as I Perch in these bloody hills I stew along like a river stopped and tranquil I am a tranquilized dog waiting my turn for blindness I already killed my firstborn with unruly kindness Like a cat who severed a weasel's head I am Proud of every sundown that has Lead to galloping like a looming Tidal wave that has come to eat the land Bloody hills these bloody hills Hills these bloody hills Bloody hills these bloody hills Hills these bloody hills I cannot stand in here in these bloody hills I cannot stew along cannot thrash my way through all these Bloody hills bloody hills these bloody hills Hills these bloody hills Bloody hills these bloody hills hills these bloody hills These hills are not my home These hills they cannot be my home I cannot make my home in these goddamn Bloody hills bloody hills these bloody hills Hills these bloody hills Bloody hills these bloody hills Oh these bloody hills
8.
Fish Song 04:55
I’ve become an alley cat with my Skin gone and knives in my hand Sullying a field lit by reflections off of fruit flies Twitching transmissions turning to sweat in the land The dirt of my home seeps into my pores Pouring poor light through the slats in the roof The softest fur swindles all the dust from the air And my small form can barely move Can barely move I spearhead a near-dead mouse under my claws Tearing guts from neutrality, its eyes never change I question fate as a questing snake wriggles to my side And I let it add to my meal when it's in range When it's in range In white light I shudder and stare wild-eyed Please spare me I'm just a child, I cried But food and warmth found me before The storms of winter could adorn me with snow (x2) Snow In a stalking cavalcade my graying brother Helps me in the act of slaying a fruit fly Before I curl in the bed with my love I can do more with my life now than wait to die (x2) In white light I shudder and stare wild-eyed Please spare me I'm just a child, I cried But food and warmth found me before The storms of winter could adorn me with snow (x2) Snow
9.
Tide 03:56
I do not know how to decide these things Careening through cloudy colors I watch the ships slosh in silence I watch the backs of my eyelids I am bound and writhing Mercy please Wildly escapes my lips and runs across The air and settles on the ears of none The greens and blues and tinted hues all flash Refracted by rain that falls askew in a pattern I can't see My helm Heading to heaven, my blemished hands Are pressed against a gap between my vertebrae Nobody sees the light, no footsteps pulse through the ground The sand refuses to answer me back I'm quivering, hunting for some sign Some hope that I will not remain

about

The names of my two favorite ladies, my two stalwart and fair guitars, are Sugar and Anise. All of my songs were pulled out of these instruments, chord progressions first with lyrics coming later. It seemed only fair that Sugar and Anise were honored in the form of this record's title.

This is a small collection of my favorite songs, some old and some written the day of recording them. They are about people I love, dreams I've had, and one track is about my cat. I push them into the world hoping that you, my friends, enjoy these simple tunes and hold me in your heart as I hold your ears.

credits

released March 19, 2021

Thanks to the people these songs are about: Fish Kowalski, Sophie Wahlstrom, and the Moon.

Thanks to the people who always listen to me play: Ma n' Pa Kowalski, Fish Kowalski, Sophie Wahlstrom, and the Moon.

Thanks to Sugar and Anise

- Jack Daw

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All songwriting and performance sole credit of Otto Kowalski a.k.a Jack Daw
Engineered and Recorded live at HI/STRUNG Studios by Allie B. and Luna Heimpel (with special thanks to Luna's expert vocal engineering!)
Mixed, Mastered, and Produced by Allie B. at HI/STRUNG Studios


Album Art by Larz Collins (@larzlinez on Instagram)
All Photos/Site Design by Allie B.

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Jack Daw Minneapolis, Minnesota

Chord-slingin' guitar troubadour from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Frog and marble enthusiast, swamp rover, and your new best friend.

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