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To order Tom's new CD and CD's also available at:
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| "Every year the mounting landfill of new releases that threatens to bury the working music journalists yields a few unexpected gems, and Tom Freund is one of them." - The New York Times *********************************************************** - New York Post ********************************************************* - No Depression ********************************************************* - Graham Parker ********************************************************* - Sonicnet.com ********************************************************* - NPR's Weekend Edition ********************************************************* - L.A. Weekly ********************************************************* - Washington Post ********************************************************* - Blogcritics.com ********************************************************* - MSNBC *********************************************************
"Caught In The Act" Ben Harper isn't about to stop working now. He's just completed a new album, Lifeline, but the singer-guitarist is already back in the studio, sitting behind the boards late on a Friday night at The Village studios in West L.A. The darkened control room is lit almost entirely by a single computer screen and a line of green Christmas lights strung along the low ceiling. And a raw, gravelly voice, wistful and yearning, is singing: "Unwind, take me off the road/If only I was home again . ." The song is "Unwind," a track from the upcoming album by Tom Freund, which Harper is producing. He and Freund go way back, all the way back to their younger days as folk singers in Claremont, out in the Inland Empire, where Harper's grandparents created the esteemed Folk Music Center. Freund and Harper recorded their first album together then, 1992's Pleasure and Pain, and they've remained in touch since, sometimes sharing stages across the country. And this week, Harper is focused on Freund's next album. As Freund steps back up to the microphone, Harper picks up an acoustic guitar and starts picking out "Something Fine," an old tune Jackson Browne showed them when the veteran folk-rocker was in the studio the night before. "He schooled us," says Harper, still figuring out the pattern and the tuning on his acoustic. Soon enough, their attention is back on "Unwind," piecing the song together in bits and layers of sound. As Freund steps up with his upright bass, Harper says to him, "Hey, T! Boom-da-boom-boom, you know what I mean? Imagine 2Pac rapping over that thing!" I mention that I recently found a copy of Pleasure and Pain for sale in a record store in Tarzana, and the asking price was $400. It gives them both pause. "I have a box of them somewhere," says Freund. "They will be found." I saw that copy of Pleasure and Pain in that store for $400, but then it was already gone by the time of my next visit. Someone had bought it up. [Laughs] Damn. That's a lot of dough for a record. Wait a minute . . How many did you make? Two thousand. That's cool as hell, man. Seriously, to have a record on vinyl that would [cost] that. It's almost like having my own baseball card. You never put that out again, right? No. Any plans to? No. I've never heard it. Is it not so good? [Laughs] I'm not ducking it, but I'm not running for it, to be grotesquely diplomatic. But it was my first time on the mike. There's a couple of moments on there. Were you happy with it at the time? Holding that in my hand was like breaking the code. That was the best. It's the exact same feeling when I get shipped my box of new CDs and I pull them out. But that first time - there's nothing like that first moment seeing it. "Tom
Freund" If there is such a genre as ambient Americana, then Tom Freund is its standard bearer. First gaining attention as a touring member of pioneering roots rockers the Silos, Freund has parlayed a decade-long friendship with Ben Harper into a series of atmospherically rustic releases that culminated in 2004's Copper Moon, a sparkling collection of folk and pop that defies easy categorization. Intense and charismatically brooding, Freund's literate narratives provide a link between Nick Drake and Jeff Tweedy, detailed explorations of the ins and outs of affection that never descend into formula. Hailed by Graham Parker as a songwriter on par with Lucinda Williams, Freund appears to be at the precipice of larger recognition. Perhaps a bit too blue-collar for those who think indie rock needs to be abrasive, songs such as "Comfortable in Your Arms" and "Married to Laughter" serve as sanctuaries of repose in the hectic mass of shouters and scene-chasers. "DIY
rocker Tom Freund happy in his autonomous world" By Bill Locey, Ventura County Star The third time may appear to be that elusive charm for Zoey's, that singer/songwriter-friendly venue in Ventura. Small, cozy, upstairs, with good food and drinks and good sound where people actually come to hear the music - it's the same venue, but a different menu. The third and latest owner, Steve Hoganson, has shaken things up in his three-month tenure by bringing in all sorts of new talent, and it seems to be working. To that end, check out a couple of solo DIY guys, Tom Freund and Zack Hexum, playing Friday night. Freund is another of those under-the-radar guys, doing just fine doing his own thing. He has five albums and a sixth in the can plus he has songs in movies and all over the boob tube. Freund is also smart. He has made himself indispensable by operating on the premise that there's more bands than bass players. He plays upright bass and also guitar. He also has been collaborating with Ben Harper for more than a decade and has toured with rock stars such as Graham Parker and the Silos. His solo stuff is often that sad-guy music about Miss Take, Miss Sing, Miss You - all those misses. It's worth showing up to hear a song he must really like - "Copper Moon" - because it appears on both of his last albums. Freund discussed the latest after a gig with local favorite Brett Dennen. Q: Hey Tom, where are you? A: Got your e-mail. I'm on tour in Texas; I'm in Austin playing with Brett Dennen. He's on my new album on a couple of tracks. Q: This will be a preview for your upcoming Zoey's gig. A: Cool. I played at Zoey's about a month ago and it went really well. This gig is going to be me and Zack Hexum; we'll probably do some jamming together, so it'll be a good time. Q: So "Sweet Affection" is your newest? A: Yeah, and there's a new record in the process; it's about halfway through or something. "Sweet Affection" is cool; it has three new tracks and five live songs from this Sweet Relief benefit. Do you know much about that? Q: Enlighten me. A: Sweet Relief is great. It was started by (singer/songwriter) Victoria Williams; she fell sick at a Neil Young concert that he holds every year - she literally kinda froze up on stage with MS - so all these artists came together, from Pearl Jam to R.E.M. to Elvis Costello, to help cover her medical costs. So they covered Victoria Williams songs and they created this fund that helps musicians get medical help when they need it. Q: Which is constantly, because your medical plan is non-existent. A: We don't really have a union health plan as to coverage for the touring musician. So anyway, she sings on a couple of tracks on this new CD and she's become a really good friend over the years. Q: So five albums? That's a lot. A: Yeah, it has been. Q: Besides the fact that it's hard to break up as a solo act unless you're a Gemini, how have you survived so long? A: The key to survival, partially, is that I'm crazy. The other parts are equal parts endurance, belief that my music actually matters to people and the need to keep writing songs and believing that I do what I do for a reason. Q: Thus, you're a rich rock star then? A: Yeah, it's mostly month-to-month these days. TV and film have helped a lot. Q: How has the DIY thing worked for you? A: That's so funny because I've been meeting all these people lately - Bob Dylan's lawyer, managers of people, producers - and they're all curious about what I'm doing, like how I'm touring and how I'm selling my CDs. It's all so odd to hear from these monoliths who are curious about me getting into a mini-van with a couple of guys in the Midwest. It seems kinda psycho, but I guess the whole paradigm is changing; it's a whole different time. Q: Aren't there only two or three labels left anyway? A: Yeah, it's a really strange time. Obviously, we all want the power and the backing of a label but, at the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean anything unless they're really behind it, you know? Q: You know, I talk to bands all the time and I've found that one of the main reasons bands break up, aside from the dreaded creative differences, is, "Need a bass player, man." Is that true? A: Luckily, I play bass; that's the good thing about what I do. I travel with my upright bass, so the bass thing isn't going to break us up. Q: Were you a bass player on purpose? Was that your first instrument? A: I play guitar also, and they both started simultaneously, but I took to the bass easily and got proficient on it quickly, so I got a lot of work when I was young growing up in New York City. I got a lot of work while I was still in high school. Q: What inspired you to be a bass player? A: Learning both guitar and bass simultaneously, I now write differently on both and it helps me write really different kinds of material. Q: So are you a Gemini or what? A: No, I'm a Virgo but the Gemini thing would be appropriate, yeah, doing more than one thing at once. In fact, that's a big thing each night: How am I going to mix up the bass songs and the guitar songs? Q: What are your songs about? Is there some sort of a general theme? A: I think each of the albums has had a little bit of a different theme. Q: How would you describe the sounds of your night job? A: Oh man, I think people get off to my shows because there's rock or pop songs with a jazz edge because of the upright bass and there's a little more mandolin, so there's a folk element, too. Q: And there's a bunch of 'em? A: Yeah. Q: Where do songs come from? A: They come however things are happening. Lately I've been in this thing that's really goofy, this crazy songwriting group that's over the Internet. It's me, Jason Mraz, Bob Schneider and Mike Doughty from Soul Coughing. It's this thing where we pick a title each week and we have to write a song no matter what, so it's kinda like a weird "Dating Game." Q: Wow. That's a great idea. Who comes up with the titles? A: Bob Schneider kinda came up with the original idea and he comes up with most of the titles, but anyone can throw out a title any time. It forces me to write. There's a new song on my album that's coming out called "Collapsible Plans," which was one of the titles and is now one of my most requested songs, so it's pretty cool. The other night I was jamming with Jason Mraz and we each played our version of "Collapsible Plans." Q: What's your Ben Harper story? A: We did an album together back in '93 called "Pleasure and Pain" and we really started together. This last tour with him was terrific and I'm even on his new album and he's producing a few songs for my next record. Q: Who goes to one of your shows? A: You know, it's kinda cool. There's a new wave of underage people, which is great because I'm all for that. And at these Texas shows, there's been a lot of young folks coming -17,18,19 and sort of the next generation, the 25-year-olds that care about lyrics, hopefully. And then somehow I've managed to rope in some of the older Gram Parker fans - I've toured with him a lot - so it's weird and I like to keep it fresh like that and not fall into a niche or a pocket, really. Q: What's the most misunderstood thing about a musician's life? A: That it's not a lot of work. All they see is the show and me drinking some beers after the show and talking to fans. They see no other part of it. Q: What advice would you give aspiring songwriters? A: Songwriters? Hmmmm. To really not be satisfied with the peripheral images and try to go to a place where you might go when you're meditating or praying; that's where you should be when you're trying to write songs. Q: How do you deal with the drunks that scream for you to play "Free Bird" every night? A: Well, I would say that happens at 75 percent of the shows. I think I used to actually have funny responses to that, but now there's absolutely no response; I just go to the next song. THISisMODERN.net Tom Freund "Sweet Affection" PERFORMING SONGWRITER Top 12 DIY Picks Tom Freund In “C’est La Vie,” Freund serenades
us with a gorgeous ode to the lonely, Freund is known for his talents as a stand-up bassist,
so it’s not ROCKZILLAWORLD Tom Freund By Zach Peterson Tom Freund has an impressive resume. He has played in a duo with Ben Harper, toured with The Silos and has references such as Graham Parker (who calls Freund, next to Lucinda Williams, his favorite working songwriter) and Victoria Williams praising his work. Copper Moon is Freund's third full-length release, and the record is a culmination of Waitsian jive and SoCal singer-songwriter fare with a stubborn pop sophistication. If this description makes little sense, that's because you just have to hear it. At first listen, I didn't make much of Freund's latest offering. But after a couple more spins and a more a-tune ear, I found a surprisingly clever, cohesive and subtly remarkable album. Freund's voice is somewhere between a rougher-around-edges ersion of Josh Rouse and a more forceful Joe Henry. Lyrically, he falls between Rouse and Henry as well. In "C'est La Vie" Freund muses: You want your space and eat it too Or take another example from "Married to Laughter": She fares well in the quakes and the floods and
the fires The mixture of sincerity and irreverence works a delicate but steady balance throughout Copper Moon. Beginning with the title track and ending with "New Moon of the 7th Sun"; which features a tasteful string arrangement by Jerry Yester, the 11-track record changes styles, but never gears. Freund handles the majority of the production duties himself and brings an eclectic dynamic to his lovelorn and road-weary lyricism. The last verse of the final song, "New Moon of the 7th Sun" reads: Like a frozen river lets go of its icy bounds As the ice melts this spring, Tom Freund has a made another record that challenges listeners to have the patience to hear the subtle masterpieces this artist crafts. From MSNBC.com Entertainment Jan. 14, 2005 These days, battles between artist and label are commonplace, but way before Prince was scrawling the word, “Slave” on his cheek, Parker was drawing up the blueprint for future corporation dissers. Unfortunately, Parker may have been the one who was hurt the most from “Poisoning.” He still puts out strong records that collect critical praise, but he has fallen from major labels’ good graces. Parker now puts out records on labels like Bloodshot and his own Up Yours! Records. Early on singer/songwriter Tom Freund’s new “Copper Moon” CD, we hear an attempt to reopen the Mercurial battles of years gone by. On “Mercury,” Freund spits, “I’m not into takin’ the progress that you’re makin’, I’m not much into consumerism.” Package these jabs with the fact that Freund is Graham Parker’s touring bass player and that Tom was once himself on a Mercury subsidiary label, Red Ant, and you can only guess that this album is going to be laced with payback rants. But fortunately, both for the record and for Freund’s career, the acid reflux stops there. Even better news is that Freund has found a more positive way to be Parkeresque: he made an album that is all at once addictive, stylistically diverse and honest to the core. Freund has been a journeyman on the pop music landscape. He first teamed up with Ben Harper in 1992 and the duo released one album together. His next stint was with The Silos as their bass player, followed by the release of his “North American Long Weekend” solo record on the Red Ant label and “Sympatico,” which was released on his own Surf Road Records. “Copper Moon,” Freund’s third album (also on Surf Road), benefits from the experience of all of his musical travels. The album’s first song and title track emerges with guitar cries that hearken back to the sound that made U2’s “The Joshua Tree” unforgettable. It closes with another moon song, “New Moon of the 7th Sun,” whose piano and orchestra arrangement is a subtle throwback to The Beatles’, “Let It Be.” In between are songs that nestle other pop references (doesn’t “Babysitter (I’ll Watch Her)”sound a bit like Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”?), but Freund’s deadpan voice and phrasing make his offerings truly unique. And daring. Few artists would insert a tempo-halting chorus into a standup bass driven jazz song the way Freund and his production team does on, “Comfortable In Your Arms.” The move is disruptive and in most hands the song would be a disaster. Instead, it just sounds right. Not to be outdone on the wordage side of things, Freund laces his songs with tales that are revealing and compact. Self-examining lyrics like, “You learn the term bachelor / From many generations of unhappy men,” (on “C’est La Vie”) paint a colorful picture of this songwriter’s lovelorn psyche. His lyrics are lean and trimmed of all the fat that a lesser skilled tunesmith may have failed to remove. There is also a bright side of “Copper Moon”
where songs like “October Girl” and the aforementioned,
“Babysitter (I’ll Watch Them)” burst with radio-ready
pop catchiness. Either song would easily fit in to any FM
adult format lineup, and bolster it to boot. Should commercial radio
shy away, soundtrack producers, who continue to surface so much
great indie music, should jump on these gems. For an artist
like Freund, having success come from your songs being used as background
music to say, a make out scene on “The OC” may be hard
to swallow, but it sure as hell beats the isolating effects of “Mercury
Poisoning.” From AMAZON / BLOGCRITICS.COM Stylistically, one is tricked into settling down
for a typical acoustic The best description of Freund's sound, and I hate
to do this, is what one
"Copper Freund" Veteran session cat Tom Freund always manages to
stay busy. When he's not Washingtonpost.com July 21, 2004 "At Iota, a Delightfully Impulsive Tom Freund" It was shaping up to be a bad night Monday for Tom Freund at Iota. The California troubadour, who confessed that "I'm in an [expletive] mood tonight," couldn't find his harmonicas. But contracts have to be fulfilled, so Freund and company took the stage -- and pretty much ran with it. Freund clearly delights in enigma. His vocals could go from laconic to impassioned without such obvious trickery as cranking up the volume. His lyrics were full of curveballs: In "Copper Moon," the title track of his latest album, he mused: "I guess we'll keep this old house on the edge of town / That way I can call on you when you're not around." At times he played his acoustic guitar as if it were electric. And partway through the set, he discarded it to play some funky upright bass. Freund had fine support from lap-steel player and bassist Drew Glackin, with whom he'd played in the Silos and, recently, Graham Parker's Twang Three, and from percussionist Matt Johnson, who has worked with Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright. Bassist John Young also joined the group on several numbers. Glackin and Young were subtle, Johnson aggressive, furthering the sense that Freund delighted in reconciling opposites. A few songs in, a pleasant surprise: A bartender presented Freund with the missing harmonica bag. Later, during "Business of Knowing," a magnificent jalopy of musical parts -- meditative lap steel, penetrating percussion, brooding vocals -- Freund grabbed a harmonica to wail on a few bars at what sounded like the end of the song. Then the ensemble upshifted into a lengthy, big-rock finish. "I'm not in the business of knowing just what I'm gonna do," Freund sang. So much the better for his listeners. -- Pamela Murray Winters © 2004 The Washington Post Company
Reviews
on Copper Moon '04
Reviews on Sympatico '01/ '02 AMG EXPERT
REVIEW: Tom Freund is indeed one of the great singer-songwriters
of the 1990's. He emerged in 1998 with an excellent debut album
on Red Ant Records, North American Long Weekend. That album presented
his awesome talent to the world with clarity and a subtle vision.
Freund's songs are loaded with a pragmatic vision and are sung in
a distinct Tom Waits-influenced growl. Imitation, however, is not
what Freund is about. This, his follow-up CD on his own label gives
us a further and even more mature example of his vision. "Seat
On A Train" and "Bombshell" are fantastic tracks,
but Freund saves the best for last with "Sympatico", where
he constructs a unique world, defines it, and then burns it to the
ground. Truly unique and absolutely brilliant.
No Depression 9/2001 Harp Winter 2002
Reviews
on North American '98/ '99
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