Hello Emerson has announced To Keep Him Here, the Ohio band’s new album will drop on March 29th via Anyway Records. The LP is a concept album telling the story of a serious and sudden accident suffered by primary singer-songwriter Sam Emerson Bodary’s father, the record is interspersed with audio from an interview conducted with NPR’s Story Corps about the incident and its aftermath. Alongside the album announcement, the group have shared the album’s first two tracks, “’It was twelve-ten’” and “Tupperware for Glass.” While “‘twelve-ten’” serves as an introductory interlude using audio of Bodary’s father setting the stage for his accident, “Tupperware for Glass” kicks off the album proper. Detailing the initial confusion of the accident, Bodary sings “I see every song unspooling / rearranging and retuning / til they settle on / the only things we know / we live and we die /and in-between we grow.” The track serves not only to set the album’s action, but also introduces the record’s themes of mortality and resilience: “This is the thesis statement of the album,” says Bodary. “All of my favorite music and literature boils down to this. How will we grow from this? In spite of this? Because of this? The whole point is our attempt to make sense of the world around us”.

Hello Emerson includes singer/guitarist Bodary, percussionist and musical director/arranger Dan Seibert, and keyboardist Jack Doran, Hello Emerson has been crafting subtle, earnest, and expansive songs since its formation in 2015. Drawing on the midwestern songwriting tradition of acclaimed acts like Bright Eyes and The Mountain Goats.

Hello Emerson
To Keep Him Here
Tracklist
Anyway Records

1. “It was twelve-ten”
2. Tupperware For Glass
3. In The Corner
4. “Trying to be helpful”
5. Church
6. Sale Today
7. Dinners I
8. Sale Today Canon
9. “So, why?”
10. Couch Song
11. To Keep Him Here
12. Dinners II
13. Tough Luck

Pre-order To Keep Him Here by Hello Emerson HERE