Jamie Freeman – Dreams About Falling
Union Music Label – 17 May 2019
Attending a recent ‘in store’ event at The Union Music Store, Lewes, I was given a promo copy of Dreams About Falling, it’s an assured a release as you could wish to encounter, on either side of the Atlantic, regardless of ‘genre’.
Jamie Freeman’s pedigree is long and distinguished, covering a plethora of roles, including songwriter, drummer, guitarist, performer, producer, live music promoter and tireless worker for The Americana Music Association UK. Previous releases, his debut record Just You (2011), 2013’s follow up 100 Miles From Town and the Hasia Dreams E.P. (2017) all received critical acclaim. With music that skilfully combines elements of country, folk, the 60’s and more, he has been credited with being instrumental in helping to define and shape English Americana and continues to be much respected by peers.
This latest album, Dreams About Falling, was produced by Grammy-nominated Neilson Hubbard (Mary Gauthier‘s Rifles And Rosary Beads), in Nashville, which has become almost like a second home to Jamie over the past decade, and includes contributions from stellar artists such as Ben Glover, Michael Logen, Angaleena Presley (Pistol Annies), Amy Speace, Amy Tudor, Doug & Telisha Williams (otherwise known as The Wild Ponies) and Brandy Zdan.
What is immediately apparent with this album is the intense vulnerability that is present in many of the songs. At times there is a brutal honesty exposed in subjects such as familial tragedy, parental expectations, childhood potential, and the allied fear of possibly having to acknowledge failing to meet expectations. Further explanation is summated as
‘Dreams About Falling alludes to the fine line between flying and falling, succeeding or failing. Some of the songs are about childhood or upbringing, how that shapes an adult and how they remember and deal with those memories. That feeling of doing something exciting and scary, or waking from a dream just before you hit the ground.’
Whilst the sentiments in the songs may refer to acutely personal experiences, such is the skill of the writing that they enable, empower and facilitate a wider, universal empathy with which listeners will be able to connect, and at times this may make for uncomfortable listening for some, whilst being a welcome release for others.
The opening cut, All In The Name, was co-written with Nashville-based Americana/folk artist Michael Logen. My inference is that the song unpicks the conundrum by which we seem prepared to undergo untold stress and pain to attain the benefits of an ultimate loving relationship which transcends the difficulties of the journey. Musically, it is an extremely strong track with which to begin the release, and such is its appeal that it surely deserves to receive wide national air-play time; one can imagine this song, with its glorious ear-worm refrain, as equally at home on mainstream BBC Radio as on more ‘niche’ broadcasts such as @BHarrisCountry.
A plaintive solo piano at the end of this track segues seamlessly into Down Range, a heart-rending tale of a Gulf War veteran returning to his wife, a man changed forever following his combat experiences.
Co-written by Freeman and Kentucky poet Amy Tudor, Pistol Annies singer and solo artist Angaleena Presley joins Jamie on this emotive track and her delivery blends perfectly with his as their vocals inter-weave before an instrumental ending, (not the only one on the album), reminiscent of ones created by George Martin during the Beatles‘ psychedelia era.
An equally poignant third track, The Fire, follows. A powerful song, co-written by Ben Glover, (winner of the 2019 UK Americana Awards Album of the Year), after the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in 2017, the intelligent lyrics allude to the general, using potent imagery, rather than a specific reference to Grenfell itself
I am the fire
I am the flame
I am the embers and the ashes
The beginning and the end
A change of mood for Standing On A Star, co-written and featuring Brandy Zdan, over what may be a Hammond organ, the song builds into a rocky crescendo with a dynamic lead guitar break that really cooks. Things change once more, however, with Rum And Smoke, written with Telisha & Doug Williams. Originally appearing on the Hasia Dreams E.P., this is a brand new recording of a song which boldly addresses themes of familial loss and the effect of having an alcoholic father. Musically the track is upbeat, with playing of the highest order, evoking the best of the late 1960s to these ears, but there is no shying aware from the impact of the lyrics.
7 years old, hungry and lean
Dad’s passed out, TV screen …
My dad did all my drinking for me
12 years old, they call my name
Free school meals, full of shame …
My dad did all my drinking for me
15 years old, my father died
Didn’t know how, I never cried…
My dad did all my drinking for me
The first of the two tracks written solely by Jamie, The Deer, would not be out of place on a Delaney & Bonnie And Friends release, although the drum pattern also recalls Sympathy for the Devil. In contrast, The Man I Want To Be, featuring and co-written by the wonderful Amy Speace, slows the mood right down on a song that will surely resonate with any male who possesses the emotional intelligence for self-reflection.
Amy Tudor‘s second co-write credit comes with Darker Wave, a heavy, foreboding number, with a brusque ending that leads straight into the more country-tinged I Miss Those Bars, co-written with Angaleena Presley, which Freeman explains is, ‘about the fear of having to fend for oneself, even if that freedom is what we desire. If we attain that freedom how will we cope?’
The album closes with the Jamie-penned Match Amongst The Ashes. My assumption, and interpretation, would be that this lilting song, which melodically at times has overtones of Junior Brown, is, in terms of the lyrics, both personal and autobiographical. With the song ending with a reference to his mother,
You’d believe that you can fly,
because she told you, so you try
it did not take much of a leap for the sentiments and thoughts within the song to resonate with me, and to cause me to reflect on my expectations, as a father, of my now grown-up daughters, and the effect that they may have had on them, (and indeed continue to). Powerful stuff indeed.
Whilst stylistically the music on this album here is far-removed from the likes of, say Reg Meuross¸ Charlie Dore or Maryn Joseph, I would proffer the view that, in terms of his unerring ability to narrate stories related to real-life, allied with a propensity to create memorable melodies, Jamie is patently in the vanguard of the current crop of British songwriters, regardless of genre-type.
Dreams About Falling is a musical tour de force, and undoubtedly his best release to date, and one can only see Jamie‘s star ascending as a result.
For details of Jamie’s upcoming live shows, visit his website below and Twitter | Facebook
https://www.jamiefreeman.co.uk/