The Philadelphia musician Jacob Brunner is a member of Weyes Blood's touring band and he has played a supporting role on records from people like Karl Blau and Little Wings. Brunner also makes his own music under the name Strawberry Hands. Today, he announces plans to follow his 2020 album I Advance Wearing A Mask with a new one called A Jazz Blessing For The Animal.
Jacob Brunner wrote and produced A Jazz Blessing For The Animal between 2022 and 2024 in Philadelphia and in the New York towns of Hudson and Waterford. It features a bunch of different musicians, including Karl Blau on saxophone and percussion. Lead single "Dream Of Water" is a lush, idiosyncratic piece of indie-folk. Brunner describes the song as "my ode to Ikkyū Sōjun, the Zen outlaw whose poems on unfettered human nature shocked his more dogmatic contemporaries. It is also an ode to my photographer father, whose bookshelf mashup of Henry Miller, Krishnamurti, and Lee Friedlander nudes forged me into a guerrilla of the sacred profane."
Later this summer, Strawberry Hands will tour the East Coast as a full band, and then Jacob Brunner will play a few solo shows out West. Below, check out the "Dream Of Water" video, the tracklist for A Jazz Blessing For The Animal, and Strawberry Hands' tour dates.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Nude Aria Pissant"
02 "What Plant Jumps Over Me?"
03 Dream Of Water"
04 "Queen's Gambit Declined"
05 "You'll Never See the Goddess Naked"
06 "Song Of Descent"
07 "Gas No"
08 "Erroneous Donut Holes"
09 "A Jazz Blessing For The Animal"
TOUR DATES:
8/26 - Hamden, CT @ Best Video
8/27 - Amherst, MA @ Belchertown UCC
8/28 - Brattleboro, VT @ Buoyant Heart
8/29 - Brooklyn, NY @ Sunview Luncheonette
8/30 - Brooklyn, NY @ Flower Love World (house show)
9/13 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's (record release show)
9/18 - Los Angeles, CA @ Permanent Records
9/19 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Sub Rosa
9/20 - San Francisco, CA @ Adobe Books
9/21 - Portland, OR @ Turn Turn Turn
A Jazz Blessing For The Animal is out 9/18 on Otherly Love. Pre-order it here.
