Angus
by Jed Moffitt and Stan Snow

In 1899, A young William Butler Yeats published a great poem called the “Song of Wandering Aengus” in an early collection of poems called “A Wind Among the Reeds”. Our song “Angus” pays homage to both this excellent poem and the spirit behind it. Yeats loved the countryside of Ireland, and he loved to explore and to fish. Stan and I both love to fish. When we write songs, when we feel like we have a good song cooking, we often refer to the song as a “Big Fish” 🙂 “Angus” describes life through the eyes of a wandering young man who pursues his dream, and his dream transforms even as he pursues it. And then one day, we are all looking back at this strange and wonderful path we have walked, recognizing that our dream is, as always, still just right around the corner. This wandering journey has become a common theme in many Sundogs songs, and really represents a core ethos of the songwriting of the band. “Angus” is a special song for us as it represents a true collaboration. Many Sundogs songs are either primarily a Jed song or a Stan song in terms of the basic songwriting. In this case, Jed wrote the lyric to “Angus” nearly 15 years ago. The lyric inspired Stan who then used his piano abilities to take the music in a completely new direction. We feel the result was magical and we loved it all those years ago, before “The Sundogs” were even an idea. As we were looking at material for the album, Stan was going through the old files and pulled out “Angus”. I am so glad he did.

I went out to the deep green wood
Fire was burning in my head
Walked to a river and there I stood
Cut me a willow, tied on a thread

Dropped a line into the stream
Circles rippled like a dream
Down in my fingers, pull on the line
Do it again, just one more time

Apples of the Sun
Apples of the Moon
My feet are tired from a life on the run
Around the corner, I’ll find her soon

Flash of silver, leap in the air
Leaves are shimmering, sun is high

Pull it stronger, if I dare
Out on the wing, the white birds fly

Turning away, I light the fire
The sun goes down, and I retire
My mind drifts back, to places I’ve been
When I wake up, she’s gone again

Apples of the Moon
Apples of the Sun
Since I was young I’ve been writing this tune
I’m going to find her before I’m through

I’ve been wandering, forty years
Telling of the one that got away
Between the lies and between the beers
Night comes on, no more to say

Mountain snow runs down the stream
Flashing in the sun like a dream
I walk to the edge and there I stand
Reading the water with a stick in my hand

Apples of the Sun
Apples of the Moon
My feet are tired from a life on the run
Around the corner, I’ll find her soon

Apples of the Moon
Apples of the Sun
Since I was young I’ve been writing this tune
I’m going to find her before I’m through

Jed Moffitt: songwriter, co-producer, keyboards
Stan Snow: songwriter, producer, vocals, piano, guitars, bass
Mike Stone: drums
Jazmin Candia: backing vocals
Don Gunn: engineering, mixing, mastering

Copyright 2020 Jed Moffitt, BMI; SAS West Music BMI, All rights reserved.