REVIEW: Annagail “Live at Seven Steps Up”

Annagail – Live at Seven Steps Up

Folk-rock duo Annagail, founded by duo Jared and Jennifer Adams and based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has a new album of live songs recorded at the Seven Steps Up listening room in Spring Lake Michigan hot off the presses: Live at Seven Steps Up. The setting for the recordings to take place that nigh was ideal, as the band put it: “the crowd was wonderfully rowdy while hanging on every word. Our favorite of all possible audience combinations.” There was magic surrounding Annagail and the songs that night, aptly captured here.

With “In Time,” the album opens with a sustained note and Jared sings a restrained measure, then the harmonies begin with Jennifer’s voice joining in, the restraint continues with a few breakout heights, a pattern that gives the sense that there’s a lot to tell in this story, and the effect is to draw the listening audience in and up close. “As the seasons fly, I’m wasting while I try and disappear/ If I run will you let me? Will you come and get me / To wipe away the fear / You say, in time, in time.”

In “Mystery at Boiling,” there’s acoustic guitar, an overall hush and an inward turning vibe as the conscious lyrics:  ” Give me some time, give me room to breathe / You gotta give me some time / To formulate what I need / Because I, I don’t know it all / The more I learn, the less I fall.” “If All I Had” provides a bit of mystery and suspense, musically, with the duo singing expansively. “So Called We” is buoyed by a bouncy bass melody, and bright mandolin as it shows the duo’s versatility.

Later in the album “Slightly Certain” is a reflective song with piano and Jared speaks the theme to the audience “the paradox of life, so you’re almost, always slightly certain of something.” That’s some profound truth. “Every Morning”  sets out with harmonica and an acoustic foundation, then mandolin and shaker blend in, and the lyrics are perceptive: “Your love has found me here today / But you’d have found me anyway / And from this I have drawn / This conclusion that I make /  Sure as I’m standin’ here today / As one we’re meant to carry on.”

Annagail is really skilled at drawing the listener in close and is talented both lyrical and musically. They’re sort of like a contemporary, acoustic version of the 70’s band Yes.  In the recording mix, sometimes the vocals, as you might expect, seem distant, and sometimes there is a little bit of a hiss. It’s the raw feel of a live show.  It would be good to see what they come up with for their next studio album.

You can find the music here on BandCamp, and follow other links from there too: https://annagail.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-seven-steps-up

The album was produced, mixed and mastered by Jared and Jennifer Adams, with FOH and engineering by Michelle Hanks, mixing and mastering by Jared Adams and recorded live at Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake, Michigan.

Musicians on the album are Jared Adams on lead and background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, nylon string guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and cabasa; Lead and background vocals; Jennifer Adams on lead and background vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, keys, mandolin, and tin whistle; Dan Foreman on background vocals, bass, and acoustic guitar; TJ Willing on drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, and melodica; and Justin Dreyer on keys, B3, and percussion.