Stray Dogs (with Iron & Wine)

Ephemera doesn't have to be ephemeral.

This morning, I put out a new song. It’s called “Stray Dogs” and it features Iron & Wine on guest vocals. It’s the first song from my upcoming album In the Last Hour of Light, a project I’ve been working on for years—years!—and I’m coming to you live from the center of a storm of feelings to bring you this report.

First of all, thank you so much for reading this. I learned a sobering fact this week: over 100,000 songs are uploaded to streaming platforms every day. The idea that anyone would spend any time at all paying any heed to one of mine is not something I take for granted. So if you’re still with me, here’s the story:

Like most of my album, “Stray Dogs” is steeped in memories. In it, I’m looking back at two moments from my life, like postcards that I’d forgotten about, in a box in the attic.

1987: I’m 8 years old. I’m visiting India. I’m in Saswad, the large village where my mother’s family is from, and where I still have aunts and uncles. While playing with my cousins, I see stray dogs for the first time in my life. Instead of the frightening, snarling, vicious animals I’d imagined from watching cartoons, they’re carefree, paying little attention to me or any other person. They have their own world, their own community. They race by, fast friends, and I gawk in wonder.

1998: One slow, summer Saturday night with nothing to do, my friends and I spontaneously decide to drive from New Haven to New York, without a particular destination in mind. The night feels woozy between the humidity and the boundless potential of being teenagers in the city. We run through lower Manhattan, wander into record stores, stay up all night, go to a diner, talking and joking and daydreaming all night before giving in to the dawn and driving home, exhausted but crackling.

And now, back in the present: I miss my friends. I miss the ease that felt so abundant back then. I miss the days when responsibility, world-weariness, and grief hadn’t settled in around me. I pick up my guitar.

“Stray Dogs” was recorded live. The whole album was. The producer, Phil Weinrobe, had the whole band in his little basement studio in Brooklyn. None of us wore headphones or listened to a click track; we just listened to each other and did a few takes. There was no isolation of the instruments, no chance to go back and redo one little part here or there. Phil felt the most important thing was to capture all of us being in the moment, letting the music feel alive and fresh in our hands. It was a wonderful idea, and I think you can hear it in the recording. I loved the way it turned out but it was terrifying for me, truly.

Luckily, I had the safety of an amazing band playing with me. My friend Ken Pomeroy came up from her home in Tulsa to play acoustic guitar, with Josh Crumbly on bass, Oliver Hill on piano, Sean Mullins on drums, El Kempner (aka Palehound) on electric guitar, Cole Kamen-Green from mmeadows played this crazy synth that you blow into called an electronic valve instrument, and Billy Crockett played a resonator guitar (which he told me was from 1932!) for the guitar solo.

You can listen to the song here. You can also watch a little video that goes with it, postcards from the present, here.

In the intro of today’s Song Exploder episode, I talked with Sam Beam from Iron & Wine about the origins of “Stray Dogs.” The episode itself is from 2022, a live taping that we did together at Blue Rock Artist Ranch & Studio, in Wimberley, TX. That event eventually led to this song, which led to Sam lending his voice to it. A dream come true for me.

Because here’s another memory: it’s 2003. I’m at the merch table at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles after the Iron & Wine show. I’d been listening to Sam’s songs on repeat for months. I sheepishly pass a copy of my own album—my first—across the table, mumbling something about my fandom.

Look at what I found in a box in the attic:

And here’s a photograph, over two decades later, taken when Iron & Wine was passing through Los Angeles once again on tour, a few months after Sam recorded himself singing the words I wrote.

So I guess what I’m telling myself, right now, in this moment, as I write these words: Look. There’s still joy to be found. Not everything is in the past.

In the Last Hour of Light comes out April 24, but you can pre-order it now! It’ll be out via Keeled Scales on vinyl and CD, and there’s a very limited edition that includes a small ceramic vessel that I made. There are just 20 of those available. (It’s the first time I’m putting any of my fledgling ceramics out into the world, but there’s so much about this album that feels like a new chapter, and I’m trying to embrace it.) There’s also a t-shirt with a drawing of a stray dog I made to go with this song.

I’ll also be going out on tour this spring. Since the album, for me, is sort of a memoir, I’m doing sort of a book tour to go along with its release. In every city, I’ll be joined by a conversation partner to talk about the album and the creative process behind it. Sort of an inverted Song Exploder where I’m the one being interviewed. (Please stay tuned for the very special lineup of guests who will be joining me for those conversations.) In the second half of the evening, I’ll be performing the songs with my band. I really hope to see you in one of these places.

A concert and conversation with Hrishikesh Hirway and special guests
April 22 - Austin, TX - 3TEN
May 14 - Los Angeles, CA - Pacific Electric
May 16 - San Francisco, CA - Swedish American Hall
May 27 - Nashville, TN - Analog at Hutton Hotel
May 30 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
June 07 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door
June 11 - Boston, MA - Sinclair
June 13 - New York, NY - LPR

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (February 19) at hrishikesh.co/live.

Plus, next week, I’ll be in Brooklyn for On Air Fest, for two events on Thursday, February 26. I’ll be the guest at a live taping of Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin, and I’ll be performing some songs and trading stories with Peter Silberman of The Antlers. You can find tickets for those here.

Thanks so much,
Hrishikesh

ps - I had the treat of getting to be a guest contributor to Wordplay, the New York Times Crossword Column. I wrote the commentary for this week’s Tuesday puzzle, which coincidentally happened to be music-themed.

pps - If you’re a West Wing Weekly Patreon subscriber, you can hear the episode that Josh Malina and I made discussing A Few Good Men. It was our way of celebrating the late Rob Reiner, as well as Aaron Sorkin’s first screenplay, and Josh’s first on-screen role.