[1][2] After the release of Speckled Bird, lead singer and guitarist Derri Daugherty and drummer and lyricist Steve Hindalong regrouped to work on their second worship album, At the Foot of the Cross, Volume Two: Seven Last Words of Christ.
[3] Daugherty and Hindalong then followed up with the Christmas-themed Noel, another multi-artist effort which included Kevin Max (from DC Talk), Buddy and Julie Miller, Riki Michele (from Adam Again) and Michael Pritzl (from the Violet Burning).
[5] Because Benson was looking to expand their roster of alternative rock artists, they hired saxophone and Lyricon player Dan Michaels—who had gained plenty of marketing and A&R experience running the Glasshouse label—to lead the new Tattoo Records imprint.
The Choir "did things a lot more reckless" musically with this album,[10] which included influences from Teenage Fanclub,[11] The Jesus and Mary Chain[12] and Mick Fleetwood.
"[13] Daugherty used unusual open tuning on "Butterfly," which made it very challenging to perform live;[14] however, his work on the final track, "The Warbler," Hindalong considers to be "the finest guitar treatment Derri has given a song.
"[9] The long instrumental coda to "Polar Boy" happened spontaneously during recording, and Hindalong used hard mallets to create a "dark" sound to the cymbals on that track.
"[15] Daugherty recorded his guitar line backwards for "If You're Listening," and to create that song's fuzzed-out bass sound, Colbert sat on the studio floor operating a Sovtek fuzz pedal as Chandler played.
"[15] Hindalong used a large amount of animal imagery in the lyrics for this album, which was reflected in most of the titles ("Salamander," "Sled Dog," "Away with the Swine," "Butterfly," "The Chicken," "The Warbler," "Yellow-Haired Monkeys").
[8] This development was inspired by his repeated visits to a local Nashville store called Wild Animals, which sold animal-focused statuaries and other art objects.
The cat clock featured in the interior artwork was Michaels' own, and the flying creature on the cover of the CD was brought on tour with the band, where it hung inside Hindalong's bass drum.
As a result of a successful 2024 Kickstarter campaign, Free Flying Soul was reissued on a single CD and a gatefold LP in November 2024, this time fully remastered.
Like all the Choir’s previous re-releases, the band recorded audio commentary for each song, which was provided to Kickstarter supporters as a digital download, and featured Hindalong, Daugherty and Michaels.
[5] With the assistance of Wayne Everett on percussion and Bill Campbell (from the Throes) on guitar,[26] the Choir played a 30-city "farewell tour" for four months in 1996,[20][27] which concluded in July at the Sonshine Festival in Minnesota.
"[30][31] To chronicle this tour, the Choir released their first live album Let it Fly in March 1997,[28] which was a collection of tracks recorded at five different concerts in Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio.
[32] Brian Quincy Newcomb, a frequent contributor to CCM Magazine and founding editor of Harvest Rock Syndicate, also provided opening and closing remarks.
[32] Writing for 7ball, reviewer Scott W. Christopher said that "Let it Fly has all of the sweet charm and distorted fury of a bootleg recording," and added that the album was a "wonderful keepsake" and a "good cross-section of their work.
"[40] Barry Alfonso, in The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music, wrote that Free Flying Soul was "an extension of what Speckled Bird had achieved," and was "among the group's most popular" releases.