25 years ago, I had an idea for an interesting structure for an album. 4 albums, actually. It was always called DECK. Thank the heavens I didn't try to make it back then as a 21 year old.

Decades passed.

On September 26th, 2022, we announced that we were setting out to make DECK a reality: 52 songs, 4 albums (♣ ♦ ♥ ♠), 2 jokers, 1 deck. And now, 2 years, 8 months, and 18 days after making that wild declaration, it's finally here. It's real.

DECK is 3.5+ hours of music. DECK is 4 albums released in one day, the first of which is also a deluxe vinyl pressing from Best Brother Records. DECK is an actual deck of playing cards with a visual design meant to reflect the song it corresponds to. DECK is an invitation to listeners to craft their own musical/visual experience however they wish to do so.

But above all, DECK is a labor of love created by a band of six friends who have been at it for just about 20 years now: Joseph Marrett, Brian Rutledge, Nicholas Ward, Ryan Connelly, David Michael Curry, and me, Ryan, the guy writing these words. But it wasn't just us. It takes a village, as they say, and so our village was also comprised of engineers, mixers, and masterers like Seth Manchester, Evan Sicuranza, Brian Charles, Keith Mann, and Amar Lal.

But friends, the village was even larger than that! There are over 50 (!) guest musicians on DECK. From our musical peers, to our musical heroes, to musicians-for-hire in Nigeria and Italy, to bag-pipers in Scotland, to my old high school media studies teacher, to a barroom of people at the Brendan Behan Pub singing along with full glasses in hand; it just kept building and building as person after person heard our crazy plans, looked us in the eye, and said, "YES."

I have to tell you, one thing not everyone knows about art in general, and especially massive projects like this, is that it costs money to make it happen. Real money. And money, as you might guess, has never been this band's main interest or wheelhouse. So, the approximately 150 people who joined us on the DECK Patreon, many of whom were members the entire time we worked on this, are all credited as executive producers here because, literally, their support of the project produced its results. Thanks so much to each and every one of you.

THIS is all to say: creating DECK, all of us together, has been one of the great adventures of my lifetime. It has been a life-affirming honor that so many people were willing to go along on the ride with us, too. Everyone in Hallelujah the Hills's life changed in some significant way during the making of this project. We lost people. We found people. We changed. And we were there for both each other and this project, determined to make good on our wild, gigantic idea. If that's not success, I do not understand the basic meaning of that word.

No one knows what happens next, but I hope I'm at about the halfway point in my life. I tried to include some of the lessons I've learned so far, some of the feelings I've felt so far, and some of the ridiculous joy and crushing sorrow that exists, always in tandem, around the planet at all times, into one musical deck of cards. I hope that you enjoy it. It's yours now.

Everything you need to dive into DECK can be found on this website. Happy shuffling. Happy listening.

Love, Ryan H. Walsh

THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS OF DECK (from the DECK Patreon):

Hempie, Jay Schneider, Nathan G. Harris Comedy, Erin Spohr, Angela Appleby, Gig Walsh, Amy, Keith Miller, Evan O'Sullivan, Katrine Burkitt, KJV , Maya Litani, Jeff Ickow, Jacqueline Cain, Ess Dalzell, mark benton, Matt Condon, Penny, Lilia Mercedes, Jon Putnam, Doug Morgan, Kim, TJ Connelly, Taylor Young, Benjamin Karnavas, Kay McGowan, Mike Sweeney, Aiden, Blind in my 3rd eye, Jay Kumar, Natalia, Chelsea, Julia Papps, David Anderso, Joseph Wyman, Neal Block, Dave Desimone, Aaron Laurie, Ned Hinkle, Mark Egerman, Rob Rubano, Jessica Elias, Sylvia Korman. Steve Young, Jon Bernhardt, Lauren Kirby, Phil Berliner, Brownbutter, David Hodgman, Dave Hurwitz, Dante Shepherd, Lee Kilpatrick, Andrew Alexis, Jacob Hisle, MB73, Chris Romine, Doug Waltonbaugh, Rick Clark. Joey Baltimore, David Bentley. Edward Morneau, Cathy Merriman, Mike Decoteau, Erik Snow, Julian Hammond, Mike Deloge, Jenn Harrington, Rich Turiel, Julien Devin. John Benda. Matthew Morse. Cindy Howes. Peter Murray. Brian Collier, Timothy Lendabarker, Scott Fabozzi, Ava Ohland. Geoff Jones, Jim McGrath, Rob Jones, Roald Hansen, Dennis Corrigan, Brad Searles. Jon Nusholtz, Mark O, Jay Breitling. Sam Snow, Mr. Dink, Michael Milinski, Jeffrey D Goldstein, Will Donham, John McCarthy Adam, The After Movie Diner, Nate Fernald, DANIEL DAVIS, John Halloran, Brian Wall , Michael LaPorta, Drew Galvin, Martha Creedon, Barbara Manning Vargas, Roald Hansen, Michael, onetenthhero. Eric Fournier, Craig Avitabile, Dave Dewey, Paul Moore, Kevin Bannon, Joshua G. Mizrahi, Dan Ball, d mayo-wells, Danny Hanson, zoë hayden, Matthew Reed Baker, David Mogolov, limesix , Paul Sager, Christopher Taylor, Emily Piper, Mike, Joseph Hathaway, Derek Hartley, Bryan Hamill, Anne Jarek, Chris Lay, C. Fernsebner Eslao, Eloise Krause, Adam Falk, Zack Inglis, TIMESCANNER