It seems awhile ago, but it wasn’t – not in days and months…or whatever time is. But in terms of phases – we’ve been in and out of all kinds of bags since last summer, right? There’s “us” before we heard the rest that 2022 had to offer, and then there’s us today. And coming on seven months later, fresh as it still is, “Hello, Hi” is disappearing in the rearview, like everything else that’s going down the road.
But July 2022, it was in the headlights, dead ahead. We weren’t there yet, we couldn’t know what it would mean, but we were excited to find out. And in L.A., with the release show at Teragram coming up, Ty and the Freedom Band were working and playing to get it together. There’d be a little acoustic set to open things up, which was something different, so a last minute show was drummed up, for Ty and Emmett Kelly to work it out in front of some people. And that kind of became the REAL record release show.
Word went out afternoon of the 21st – free show tonight in Highland Park – YEAH! A crowd showed up that evening and crammed in among the vintage clothes to hear some music and share some times. Just hearing the five songs included here, this show TOTALLY ruled – with the incredible waves of feeling in the crowd and the spontaneous play in the songs we now know from the album versions, all of it almost miraculously captured to tape (by the capturer himself, Mike Kreibel) at FULL WARMTH.
In a live setting, the hazy revelations in “Distraction” are sharpened into an instrument of resolution; an inadvertent cheering crowd interlude blasts affirmative energy, followed by a slight return in which Emmett’s acoustic solo draws a path of freedom into our once-again expanding world. Live At Worship is a perfect live recording, viscerally capturing performances elevated by the presence of an audience, an energy exchange that transforms the songs in the moment they are played.
Drop the needle and you’re there – say “Hello, Hi” to Live At Worship on February 24th!
