FREEHAND - GREAT PROG ROCK w/bits of FUSION - "ECLECTIC EARWIG REVIEWS get CD reviews here!"    
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Freehand: Thinking Out Loud (CD, 65:29); InEar Visions Music IEV-9503-2, 1997
Contact info: Metaphoric Music Productions, item: mmp149025
P. O. Box 3042
Durham, NC 27715
Phone/ Fax: 919-382-2972
Email: meta4ik@mindspring.com

	If you consider yourself a progrock or jazz-rock fusion lover then make sure to 
add this release to your collection. This North Carolina band recorded and released the 
early cassette version of this in 1988-89. Time moved on and Freehand dissolved as so 
many other quality prog/fusion entities have. It's a shame I have lived so close to this 
band's stomping grounds and somehow Fate clouded their existence out of mine until 
after the fact. Thankfully, Freehand chose to re-release their fine music in a CD format 
nearly a decade later. Two unreleased songs are added with a ton of historic liner notes 
and excellently artsy packaging to boot. Best of all the sound quality has been vastly 
enhanced over the original cassette version.
	Freehand used to play Happy the Man, UK, and King Crimson covers and these 
influences clearly show in their songs. If you like fusion guitar, quirky keys, cosmic 
synths, complex time signatures, melodic and creative bass lines then you'll enjoy 
Freehand. "RH Factor" is the song most likely to please HTM fans with saxophone 
included. "Camels Dance" is also a HTM inspired song. I picked up S.F.F.'s Symphonic 
Pictures coming thru in that one as well. That Kit Watkins otherworldly carousel ride is 
spinning away on these pieces. Even a taste of Jean Luc Ponty composition graces 
"Mirkwood" -- only lacking Ponty's violin. Adrian Belew era Crimson is all over the 
place. "Mastodon" vocals and stampeded-loud guitars shout blatant Belew/Crimson and 
it's all crazy fun. I could go on but I leave the joy of surprise to your future listening.
	Musicianship is flawless, creative, passionate, ballsy, and precise. Robert 
Howerton and David Bollinger are excellent guitars and decent vocals. David also does 
keys. Brian Preston is big bass and God bless 'im, brainchild behind the re-release. Jeff 
Lindsey did the challenging drumlines and Todd Barbee's tenor sax added the "instant 
HTM" ingredient. Freehand is a band that should not have faded away but they were 
"before the times" and they flashed in the pan brightly but briefly. Tell 'em thanks and 
pick this treasure up while the tide is out. More than highly recommended. 
 -- John W. Patterson
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"Thinking Out Loud" excerpt



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