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The Watchful Eye Of The Stars

by Adrian Crowley

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1.
Day One, I stole onboard a northbound ship No one saw me or my shadow On the gang plank For that I am thankful I am thankful I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound Stow-oh-oh-Away Day Two, I kept myself well hidden In my hiding place Under the calico And it’s drowsy work When you’re staying invisible So I drifted off and we put out to sea I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound Stow-oh-oh-Away And we crossed strange meridians In the light from the wheel house With a trail of phosphorescence Day Three, I was hungry and thirsty For it’s hungry and thirsty work When you’re staying invisible When you're staying invisible So I licked the salt and drank the rain And drank the rain and licked the salt again Again I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound Stow-oh-oh-Away Day Seventeen, sustained by a dream And I’m still the hidden cargo That’s remained unseen Thankfully thankful I am thankfully thankful I am thankfully... Thankful Day Thirty Seven, I discover a seed Hidden in the sole of my boot It’s been there all along So I break the seed in three The first piece is my breakfast The second I take for my supper And the third... Is my midnight feast I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound oh oh oh I’m a North Bound Stow-oh-oh-Away And the rain gets sweeter And the rain gets sweeter The higher we go And the salt turns to sugar The higher we go And the rain gets sweeter The higher we go And the salt turns to sugar The higher we go And the rain gets sweeter The higher we go And the salt turns to sugar The higher we go And the rain gets sweeter The higher we go And the salt turns to sugar The higher we go
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Bread And Wine I found a halfway room in a seaside town I’ll stay here for a while Through my window I can hear the ship bells ring And I wake to the smell of the brine The stray dogs here follow me around They seem to know their kind And I play the piano in a harbour bar The pay me in bread and wine Bread and wine Bread and wine It’s taken me so long to write to you Well I just couldn’t find a pen And then there was the quest for writing paper And it just went on from there I have it in my mind to tell you more When the time is right But meanwhile I’ll be playing waltzes For bread and wine For bread and wine So how’s life in the City Of Lost Poets? Did they ever catch that thief Who stole The Relics Of Saint Valentine, Who says romance is beat? I can picture him running across the rooftops Laughing all the way Who knows, maybe I’ll bump into him here And I’ll share my bread and wine My bread and wine I found a halfway room in a seaside town I’ll stay here for a while Through my window I can hear the ship bells ring And I wake to the smell of the brine I play the piano in a harbour bar For bread and wine I play the piano in a harbour bar For bread and wine I’ll be playing the piano in a harbour bar For bread and wine And they pay me in bread and wine, bread and wine
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Crow Song 06:29
10.

about

One stormy night in Ireland, Adrian Crowley’s brother brought home a wounded crow. After taking care of it for a time, the crow flew away on its own, leaving an impression behind: Crowley wrote a story, which would later become the aptly titled “Crow Song” on this, his brand new record & ninth studio album The Watchful Eye of the Stars. He sings, “And I was joyous for you, but shattered none-the-less.”

Suffused with a hazy and surreal quality, Crowley describes Watchful Eye’s poignant narratives as those which insisted themselves upon him. After the fact, it seemed these songs came to him more or less fully formed. “It’s a beautiful and mysterious thing,” he says. Perhaps it is a tendency to hold onto memories (“It’s taken me so long to write to you / Well I just couldn’t find a pen,” he laments in “Bread and Wine”), that allows him to unleash them lyrically in completion. For Crowley, the creative process is an organic event rather than a practice he feels compelled to regulate or control. He approaches lyrics much like he does short story writing. “The songs straddle the conscious and subconscious world and some are even psychedelic in my mind, but to me they are all at once true stories and born of another place,” he shares.

In making the album, Crowley moved between studio and at home recording, while John Parish (Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey) produced. The pair worked from tracks made initially by Crowley on a charity shop ¾ size nylon string guitar or Mellotron: “In this way, John wanted to keep some of the magic of that first take”, says Crowley. Contradictions and complexities are left intact, initial recordings were limited to one or two takes, and the songs feel more like a dream recounted upon waking.

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released April 30, 2021

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Adrian Crowley Dublin, Ireland

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