{"id":40778,"date":"2008-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/home-free\/"},"modified":"2008-03-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-05T00:00:00","slug":"home-free","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/home-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it was a fait accompli<\/i> that Dan Fogelberg would become a musician. With a mother who was a trained classical pianist and a father who taught band at the high school level for many years, there were certainly a lot of genetic and family tendencies \u2013 so it\u2019s no surprise that Irving Azoff discovered Fogelberg playing guitar in a coffeehouse in Illinois<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> in 1971 and decided he had star potential. After session work with Van Morrison and others, Fogelberg released his debut album, Home Free<\/i>. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

While not an immediate chart or critical success, the album is an interesting indicator of where Fogelberg would go in his later career. Unlike a lot of artists, Fogelberg\u2019s sound was already distinctive and fully-formed; his mix of country, folk, and wide-screen, string-laden arrangements may take a little getting used to, but there\u2019s no denying its power on songs like \u201cTo The Morning.\u201d On the other hand, many of the songs on Home Free<\/i> are reminiscent of harmony-driven acts like Crosby Stills Nash and Young, especially \u201cWysteria\u201d and \u201cLooking For The Lady.\u201d Somewhere in the middle is the Eagles-esque \u201cAnyway I Love You,\u201d and Fogelberg even skirts into full-on country\/bluegrass on \u201cMore Than Ever\u201d. Eventually, all these elements would mix into a more consistent and unique sound; for now, Home Free<\/i> is Fogelberg finding his way and taking his first few musical steps.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Two songs deserve specific mention. \u201cThe River\u201d is, by far, the best track on the CD; on it, Fogelberg spins a dark and foreboding tale of growing up in a stripped-down, spare voice reminiscent of Neil Young — with the added bonus being that Fogelberg can actually sing. On the other hand, \u201cBe On Your Way\u201d is a huge disappointment, a track that proves to me that at this point in his career Fogelberg couldn\u2019t tell \u201cwistful\u201d and \u201cwimpy\u201d apart. Finally, I add one caveat emptor for the musically obsessive; the CD release of Home Free<\/i> is a drastically different album from the original vinyl release, having been completely remixed and rearranged. I can\u2019t speak to the differences — I only own the CD — but be aware nevertheless.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Is Home Free<\/i> a great album? No. It is, however, an interesting album, and as a bellwether for Fogelberg\u2019s later career — which I feel is sadly underappreciated — it\u2019s indicative of where he would eventually go. <\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6036],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-40778","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dan-fogelberg","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40778"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}