Freedom – Nobody
Freedom – Man Made Laws
Freedom – Pretty Woman
Freedom started off as a band featuring a couple of the guys who got kicked out of Procol Harem just as the band found success with “A Whiter Shade Of Pale.” Gutiarist Ray Royer and drummer Bobby Harrison formed the group, which went through a slew of personnel changes before and after releasing this, their third record. By this time the group was just a trio, with Harrison joined by Roger Saunders on guitar and Walt Monaghan on bass.
At times, the groups sounds an awful lot like the band Free, but at their best (I guess sounding like Free isn’t really a bad thing) they have this really nice gritty bluesy rock sound that grooves nicely funky. “Nobody” and “Man Made Laws” have that easy heavy rock groove, “Pretty Woman” is a solid version of the Albert King track (not to be confused with the other “Pretty Woman” from Roy Orbison). Shame the group never took off, the playing is mighty good though (predictably) I wish they’d laid down an instrumental or two (or someone would dig up the instrumental backing tracks), but all in all, pretty good music to drive or strut down the streets of a big city on a Sunday evening.
Cheers,
Michael