All Hallowed goes seamlessly from folk to dance-pop

The trio debuts new release at Yellow Cab Tavern tonight.
All Hallowed, (left to right) Ricky and Lacey Terrell with Chris Cox, is releasing its full-length debut, “Give Me Mercy” (Poptek Records), at Yellow Cab Tavern in Dayton on Friday, Nov. 4. CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

All Hallowed, (left to right) Ricky and Lacey Terrell with Chris Cox, is releasing its full-length debut, “Give Me Mercy” (Poptek Records), at Yellow Cab Tavern in Dayton on Friday, Nov. 4. CONTRIBUTED

Talk about a 180-degree musical transition. Wife-and-husband team Lacey (vocals) and Ricky Terrell (bass, vocals) went from the fragile folk of Starving in the Belly of the Whale to the dark, dance-pop of All Hallowed. The trio releases its killer full-length debut, “Give Me Mercy” (Poptek Records), at Yellow Cab Tavern in Dayton on Friday, Nov. 4.

All Hallowed began during the early days of the coronavirus lockdowns. The Terrells recorded its first blast of spunky, bass-heavy dance tunes with drummer Aaron Gillespie of Underoath. The early songs were released in 2021 on two limited edition cassette EPs from Friend Club Records.

The band, with current drummer Chris Cox, recorded “Give Me Mercy” with Micah Carli at Popside Recording in Troy. There was additional production by Denny Cottle and backing vocals from Vinnie Caruana from I Am the Avalanche and the Movielife and Nick Thompson from Hit the Lights.

Ricky recently discussed the origins of All Hallowed.

Time for a change: “Starving came to a conclusion in 2018 or ‘19 but Lacey and I never really stopped writing or playing music. She had really started focusing on writing lyrics so she had all of these songs written. I was over the folkie thing. In my mind, Starving was everything I wanted in a folk project so we started thinking about doing something else musically. I never want to do anything in that genre again. That box has been checked with me.”

Six strings not required: “When I do music, I always want it to be as unique as possible. We decided we weren’t going to have guitars anywhere on this project. Bass and drums are the only instruments. I had been working on bass lines and guitar riffs so it was like a good collaboration with her coming up with melody lines for the lyrics she had written. Most of the lyrics were probably from one to two full pages of non-stop poetry and stories she had written. Most of the album’s songs came from that first braindump.”

Popside sessions: “For the last decade, we’ve faithfully been Micah Carli supporters. We started recording the All Hallowed songs during the pandemic. We all mesh so well together. Whenever I’ve worked with Micah in other bands, he’s great at coaching you into being a better band. It’s never like, ‘I’m into this genre, let’s go this way.’ He just wants you to be the best version of yourself and it was the exact same with this project.”

Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or e-mail at donthrasher100@gmail.com.

HOW TO GO

Who: All Hallowed with the 1984 Draft, Jill & Micah and Place Position

Where: Yellow Cab Tavern, 700 E. Fourth St., Dayton

When: 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4

Cost: $7 in advance, $10 day of event

More info: 937-424-3870 or yellowcabtavern.com

Artist info: www.poptek.com/all-hallowed

About the Author