Whose Hat Is This? Releases “Everything’s OK”

by Kevin Johnson Saturday, November 17th, 2018

Whose Hat Is This?: Everything’s OK Whose Hat Is This? has just released their second album, Everything’s OK, on Ropeadope Records. The band’s completely improvised style has gotten even stronger than their self-titled debut, which was also their first ever show. Everything’s OK is also a live recording, this time from their performance at The 8×10 in Baltimore, Maryland during their Scorch Your Shorts tour with guest vocalist Koyaki.

Whose Hat Is This? was born out of the Tedeschi Trucks Band rhythm section and features saxophonist Kebbi Williams, drummers JJ Johnson and Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell, and bass monster Tim Lefebvre. His electric and upright bass work brings a sense of groove as well as an adventure to the album. Of course, his masterful use of effects helps to create huge blankets of sound. Lefebvre spoke about the band’s approach and the album with LiveForLiveMusic.com earlier this year.

“We start totally from scratch. Un-preconceived. What makes it work to me is like, sometimes we just start noodling around and somebody suggests a groove, and sometimes it takes a few minutes, but we all lock into this thing, and then, all of a sudden, it’s this huge marching animal. The searching stops, and all of a sudden we’re on this groove and it’s pretty tight,” he said. “…You can definitely hear it lock in on the new record. Again, that was all totally off the cuff that night—it just kind of all happened like that. And Kokayi was basically composing on the spot. It just was a serendipitous kind of night. Kokayi an amazing artist, really.”

Hear the band find that heavy groove on the album opener, “Chomp-Chomp-Chomp/Love!”: