Friend Song - Slaughter Beach, Dog Cover

Bed To Stay

Windowsill

A Wish, A Lie

Lynda

The first single from Ship & Sail's upcoming EP 'Hymnal'
Track releases June 7
EP releases June 28 on Two Foot Parade Records

You hum like the Christmas lights 
When you crawl into bed at night 
You tried to hide from the fright 
But I saw right through your eyes 
I’m still awake tonight 
When I cross right through your mind 
I’m sick of hide and seek 
Sarah, come back out for me 
You have your jewelry 
Hanging up above your sink 
Nothing but a scary dream of oppression 
Sung like nursery 
Get clean for me

Get Clean

The world is a scary place. Living life openly and freely only for it to break down your front door is a risk not everyone is willing to take. Indie folk artist, Ship & Sail, is willing to take that risk, and he’s already removed all of the locks. Colin Haggerty, the bearing soul lingering inside the body of Ship & Sail, has learned to leave his doors wide open for pain, peace, and everything in between to come and go as they please. He greets each encounter with a nod and then grabs his guitar to start writing. He’s not going to rebuild the door itself. He’s learned to appreciate the breeze. His songs are his protective barrier, each one like an imaginary brick, heavy and unbreakable.

The uncommonly close relationship with loss can be observed in each song written with masterful dexterity. Haggerty’s crooning vocals drift in and out with ease and vitality like breaths inhaling and exhaling. Ship & Sail devises a necessary tension in the room like a lung chamber collecting each gasp of air, cycling it up through the body for brief release, then pulling it back in. Haggerty holds his guitar like an extension of his heart. Each thrum gently weaves like a trickle of blood flowing delicately from an open wound, while chilling lyrics thicken each crimson drop, leaving it frozen and still. As each minute passes with Ship & sail behind the mic, he captures souls right out of their bodies. He collects them in his jar of truth where they feverishly burst before eventually settling at the bottom. 

Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Haggerty can be found writing something, anything down at all hours of the day- a habit that formed in 2012. His first band, Cass Benton, formed in 2017 and featured Haggerty on vocals and guitar. Two years later, what started as a songwriting exercise became Ship & Sail’s first EP, Even From A Dying Tree, The Worry Bird Sings (2018). Shortly after the release of this EP, Haggerty began writing From Seeds (2018) as a tribute to his late mother. The repeating line, “From seeds grow trees” in the title track, represents the certainty of growth and nourishment: The thought that something so small and bare, like a seed, blossoms into a towering, flourishing tree. While grieving of the loss of his mother, as apparent as it is in the music, Haggerty fixates on this idea of life, the loss only making it seem all the more precious and explorable. 

 Mixed and mastered by Doug Gallo (of the band Hodera) at AGL Sounds in New Jersey, From Seeds is, according to Haggerty, “the most important release I’ve ever had and has been a blast to play live.” Since the release of From Seeds, Ship & Sail has shared the stage with John Nolan (Taking Back Sunday, Straylight Run) and Breathe Owl Breathe and has performed as a four-piece, a soon to be six-piece, and will also be doing a three-piece acoustic-folk outfit. All while continuing to play solo. Drawing comparisons to Conor Oberst, Mount Eerie, and Jake Ewald of Slaughter Beach, Dog, Ship & Sail embodies a similar sense of vulnerability like an exposed vein peeking through the delicate soft tissue, revealing each story of his life like a nerve ending inflamed with authenticity.