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You're Still Here

by Dawn Riding

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    "You're Still Here" - First-Press Limited-Edition pressing on black vinyl. Full color cover with lyric sheet & recording session photo insert. Includes Digital Download card and unlimited streaming through the Bandcamp app. Released November 11, 2022 as a split between The Long Road Society and Speakeasy Studios SF.

    Includes unlimited streaming of You're Still Here via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

1.
Nine Lives 04:19
He got his first tattoo sitting in the pen The day his mama died With some ballpoint ink and the scratching of a pin A heart saying “mama tried” He got a heart saying mama tried Well I met him in a motel party in the days We drove down to see a show He was cutting up a pill he wasn’t gonna share I watched him put it up his nose Well I watched him put it up his nose That was one of my nine lives He nearly took me out But I moved on down the line and Now it’s just a thing to sing about That was one of my nine lives I’m on 8 7 6 by now It wasn’t love at first sight but it was by the time He agreed to hit the road See I didn’t have a car and I knew it would be far A place that I could really let go I was looking for a place to let go And his heart was broke when he was just a kid By his dad and the D.E.A. Daddy tried to make it right it was too late by the time They finally put daddy away Well they came and took his daddy away That was one of my nine lives He nearly took me out But I moved on down the line and Now it’s just a thing to sing about That was one of my nine lives I’m on 8 7 6 by now We were two broken hearts looking for another half To smooth in the jagged side Yeah we fit alright but nothing ever healed His knives cut right across mine Well his knives cut right across mine When we finally called it off I was full of blame He snuck in my room and covered the wall in black shoe paint It said “you know what you want, and that I ain’t” I left him scratching at the door Now that was quite a long time ago That was one of my nine lives He nearly took me out But I moved on down the line and Now it’s just a thing to sing about That was one of my nine lives I’m on 8 7 6 by now
2.
All The Time 02:45
I’ve been out walking alone I don’t know if I should return It’s too bad I need so much you’re going out of your mind To say you want my love but you don’t want it all the time Too much coffee makes me shake One more straw would make the camel’s back break So I guess I understand it then what you’re trying to say You really love me you can’t really love me everyday You wanted in you were sold You started sweating when the rubber hit the road I feel bad for that baby now you’re under my spell You might not be happy but you’re good enough and well
3.
Born on a lucky sign My life was saved by a rolling dice And there is no good reason why I never had to fear I never had to fight What did you do when Perry died Did you pull your blinds and hide Or did you run down screaming through the night And let the barricades light the sky Some people mourned the loudest For the loss of property And it makes me sick to see them When those people look like me Life in uncertain times I was alone three months on ice Said I was a prisoner of my mind Until I heard the news I was reminded That all my family knows is crime And nobody knows hard time But the cops kicked in the door And they took sweet Breonna’s life They say you’re born and you die alone Well you know that’s not true You’re born into a legacy Of what went down here before you How can you wear your great grandmother’s pearls And you tell me the past is gone The books closed on yesterday But tomorrow’s coming fast along
4.
Hold On 02:48
I woke in static darkness With my eyes two saucers glowing And I rose and went to walk in the Deserted streets of morning ‘Cause I wanted you So I could not be soothed I drove across the country In my rusted wagon racing When the wheels tore off I drove along The sharpened hub and bearings ‘Cause I wanted you So I could not be soothed Hold on to me Hold on to me Hold on to me Like I hold you I walked through darkened canyons My skin shining like a mirror My sweat dropped into the sand until The sand was made a river ‘Cause I wanted you So I could not be soothed In sleep the world is lovely As you hold me spinning rocking I awake into the longing And I want to sleep a century ‘Cause I wanted you So I could not be soothed Hold on to me Hold on to me Hold on to me Like I hold you
5.
Hair as black as a raven’s wing Spread across the pillow While she’s soaring through a world of dreams Crying softly in her sleep Looked over from the bed beside Glowing blue in the tv light She says she’s ready to change her life I could never count the ways she already changed mine Little as a tinker bell Mean as hell Pretty as the lightning in the midwest That cracks the sky into electric blue Beautiful and dangerous In the old house kitchen she’d be Sitting on the floor and laughing so loud You couldn’t help but smiling Even if you missed the joke Back in San Francisco she was Dancing in a peep show I would feed my dollars in And you could feel her healing light When the curtain was rising Little as a tinkerbell Mean as hell Pretty as the lightning in the midwest That cracks the sky into electric blue Beautiful and dangerous If I let you go How far will you go And how will I know But if I hold you close Will I sink like a stone There’s a light you shine Cozy and warm But we all know the story of the girl Who flew too close to the sun
6.
You were a beauty queen dressed in rags You were a sailor never looking back We rode the highway like a bucking horse With no concern but daring Who could say there’d be a change in tide The clock would turn to face me I believed I was a friend of time And danger always would be on my side Life is a game I don’t intend to win I do play crooked just to get my kicks I’ll never say we wasted any time On laughing or drinking Who could say there’d be a change in tide The clock would turn to face me I believed I was a friend of time And danger always would be on my side Live on fire or go down in flames Love me even though I’m going away When we were young it’s not that we were brave Only we were yearning Who could say there’d be a change in tide The clock would turn to face me I believed I was a friend of time And danger always would be on my side
7.
Sunlight breaks unto my garden On the blooms and on the barren Dirt where I can’t find No seed no sign Of life Blue the winter all December Blue the springtime oleander I turn blue inside As blue as bright As sky Let it roll The credit score again So in leaving so do come alight And on the road again Heading home the scales fall from my eyes Do you love me would you swear it On your grave and then go dig it I’ll dig mine beside True love demise Right Let it roll The credit score again So in leaving so do come alight And on the road again Heading home the scales fall from my eyes
8.
Luck Run Out 03:28
Don’t go down to the bar tonight I’ve got a feeling things just aren’t right Three blackbirds sitting on the wire I got a call that the lights aren’t on Nobody’s there and nobody’s home Are you gonna keep calling me a liar I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run Are you gonna come I’ve got to go but I know the place The parking lot’s covered by the gate You pay in cash you can give any name It’s a place of luck run out A cigarette glowing in a shadow’s mouth Just nod your head to show your good will there I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run Are you gonna come

about

In San Francisco’s Mission District, there’s a Victorian house with a garden full of towering tobacco flowers and rose vines so thick they’re pulling down the fence. Every Sunday, for a great span of 2021, songwriter Sarah Rose Janko (Dawn Riding) would join producer & engineer Alicia Vanden Heuvel (Aislers Set, Magic Trick) there, to play guitar, sing harmonies, and hum lines for other instruments, before retreating to Alicia’s basement recording studio (Speakeasy Studios SF), to roll tape on her Otari half-inch 8-track.

This is how, week by week, Dawn Riding’s new record You’re Still Here, was chipped out of the ethereal and into an expansive album of meticulously crafted and deeply captivating songs. It’s an album steeped in intimacy and warmth, each song built with a level of restraint that leaves room for Sarah Rose’s quietly fierce vocals and her powerful songwriting to sit front and center. Nothing is rushed and each song is presented almost as a vignette: some with so much stillness you can feel the relationships, some that build from the heart’s interior solitude into swells of emotional catharsis. You’re Still Here is a songwriter’s album and Sarah Rose Janko, in the tradition of great American folk musicians, is laying most of her cards on the table - endearing you to her portraits of American life, and leaving you thirsty for the stories that haven’t yet been told.

credits

released November 11, 2022

All songs written by Sarah Rose Janko

You’re Still Here marks Dawn Riding’s third full-length album, and is a co-release by The Long Road Society and Speakeasy Studios SF, two women-owned Bay Area record labels. The credits reveal a wealth of Bay Area musicians lending their talents, with multi-instrumentalist Vanden Heuvel acting as producer and musical arranger:

Sarah Rose Janko - vocals, guitar, piano
Hall McCann - electric guitar, vocals
Jasmyn Wong - drums
Alicia Vanden Heuvel - bass, organ, drums
Keenah Silver Fassett - drums
Jessie Leigh Smith - harmonica
Jacob Aranda - pedal steel, violin
Anna Hillburg - trumpet

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about

Dawn Riding Oakland, California

Dawn Riding is the musical project of singer-songwriter Sarah Rose Janko, who was born and raised in Northern California and currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dawn Riding’s songs of love, loss, and friendship, present characters chiseled out of Janko’s own experience & memories, and you can feel it in her intimate, tough-as-nails depictions of American life, ... more

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