Freedom's Child should not be confused with Freedom Child.
| Freedom's Child | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Billy Joe Shaver |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 2002 |
| Label: | Compadre[1] |
| Producer: | R.S. Field |
| Prev Title: | The Earth Rolls On |
| Prev Year: | 2001 |
| Next Title: | Try and Try Again |
| Next Year: | 2003 |
Freedom's Child is an album by the American musician Billy Joe Shaver, released in 2002.[2] [3] Shaver supported the album with a North American tour.[4] It was a hit on Americana radio stations.[5]
Kinky Friedman mentions "Freedom's Child" in his novel Ten Little New Yorkers.[6] Robert Duvall appeared in the video for the song.[7]
Recorded over three days in Nashville, Freedom's Child was produced by R.S. Field.[8] [9] Shaver chose from around 24 songs he had written.[10] Jamie Hartford and Will Kimbrough played guitar on the album.[11] The sound mixed country with blues and rock.
Some versions include an unlisted track, "Necessary Evil", by Shaver's late son, Eddy; it was Shaver's first album without his son since 1987.[12] [13] "Corsicana Daily Sun" and "Day by Day" are autobiographical songs.[14] "That's Why the Man in Black Sings the Blues" is a tribute to Johnny Cash. "Déja Blues" is a duet with Todd Snider.[15] "Magnolia Mother's Love" contains just Shaver's voice and a mandolin.[16] A version of "Good Ol' U.S.A." appeared on Shaver's album Tramp on Your Street.[17]
Uncut wrote that Shaver "mixes up gritty, almost Stones-like house-rockers with honky-tonk drinking songs, raw rockabilly romps and loss-tinged acoustic ballads." Robert Christgau praised "That's What She Said Last Night". USA Today concluded that Shaver "writes of patriotism, his heroes and a mother's love without resorting once to a cliche or a rhyme that sounds as if it were used simply to finish a line."
No Depression noted that Shaver "most often delivers his songs in the high and spiritual southeastern tones of Roy Acuff and the Acuff-influenced part of Hank Williams, if in a less dramatic, more laconic way."[18] The Orlando Sentinel stated that the songs "reject glossy studio production to embrace a rambunctious, roadhouse feel." The Washington Post deemed the album "a reflection on a lifetime of hardship and reward, struggle and sweet victory, it is country music clean to the bone at its gritty, thoughtful best."[19]
AllMusic called the album "a fine and moving album from one of country's least-appreciated major talents."[12] The Reno Gazette-Journal listed it as the third best album of 2002.[20]