Discographies

Live at Seven Steps Up

Release Date: January 31, 2025

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“Words escape us. These are friends and beautiful humans. If you get a chance somewhere down the road to see Annagail, take it.” -Gary Hanks // Seven Steps Up

Captured at the famed listening room, Seven Steps Up in Michigan. The people, the family, the music, the artists, the heroes we shared too many glasses of wine with…it was a special place and a special time in our lives. A transcendent night with some obligatory extended jams. A fantastic crowd at a fantastic venue. We’re running out of adjectives and are humbled and so proud to finally give these ‘live arrangements’ of songs a home.

It’s deeply satisfying for us, and hopefully your ears (heart and soul) to get it out. The album is dedicated to our beloved sage elder soul wizard brother, Gary Hanks. We miss you.

Thanks to all the beautiful souls in the audience that night (and the nights of any show for that matter) for listening and singing along. On behalf of every songwriter we know, it means more than you could ever know.

The crowd was wonderfully rowdy while hanging on every word. Our favorite of all possible audience combinations.

We’ve all lived a lot of life since this recording. As songwriters, as a band and as humanity in general. What a wild time to be alive. The building lives on now as The Temple Lounge and we are so glad that sacred space still brings music and moments like this.

Music has carried us through life which is (often) sometimes (almost always) (quite) hard. 🥴 and we just try to make space for the magic of music and community to do its thing – to bring some comfort, smiles or make some feet tap. That’s what this night was about. If there is anything supernatural in this life, it is music. I think Dumbledore says something to that effect.

Relive it or join us for the first time with ‘Live at Seven Steps Up’

Album Review

"There was magic surrounding Annagail and the songs that night, aptly captured here."

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.

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 Willink on drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, and melodica; and Justin Dreyer on keys, B3, and percussion.

- Americana Highways