''Free'' is singer-songwriter

Gavin DeGraw Gavin Shane DeGraw (born February 4, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album ''Chariot'' (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB drama series '' One Tree ...

's third album. The album was released on March 31, 2009. It was his final album for

J Records J Records was an American record label owned and operated by Bertelsmann Music Group until it was transferred to Sony Music Entertainment when they acquired all of BMG’s record labels in late 2008. It was distributed through the RCA Music Grou ...

. To keep himself from overthinking the songs, DeGraw made ''Free'' in less than two weeks at the Brooklyn studio of his producer

Camus Celli Camus Celli is an American songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur born in Savannah, Ga. He studied composition and production at Berklee College of Music before moving to New York to work as a freelance programmer for such music legends as Ni ...

, who has worked with such artists as

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

Lana Wolf Lana Wolf (born 14 December 1975 in Wezep, Gelderland) is a musician and singer. She sang with many international artists, among which are The Trammps, George McCrae, Londonbeat, Frans Bauer, René Froger, Gerard Cox and Linda, Roos and Jess ...

and

Arto Lindsay Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation ''No New York''. In ...

. DeGraw and Celli have known each other since working together on an early version of DeGraw's 2003 major-label debut, ''

Chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nb ...

''. “I’ve been in the studio with several different producers so I already knew what I wanted,” DeGraw says. “This was my opportunity to be involved in the production and I knew Camus could get the sounds I was going for.” The trust he had in Celli and the collaborative spirit of their partnership freed DeGraw to dig deep and tap into something he hadn't tapped into for a while. “This album reveals the honesty about my love of music,” he says. “It isn’t about the biggest, the strongest, or the loudest. It’s about simplicity in its purest form. It doesn’t sound like the big machine. It sounds like where you go to escape the big machine.”

Development

The album was recorded towards the end of 2008 and completed in January 2009 and released on March 31, 2009, less than a year after the release of his previous album.

Singles

The album's first single, "Stay", was leaked through the internet on March 11, 2009. The second single, "Dancing Shoes", was released later in 2009. The song "Glass" was featured on the 18th episode from the sixth season of the series '' One Tree Hill''.

Critical reception

Critics were generally favorable of the album. Giving the album three-out-of-four stars, ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' said that "DeGraw's haunting, bluesy drawl sometimes overwhelms this earnest, soulful-ish material. But when the annoyances are gone...the balance is beautiful."Shriver, Jerry; Jones, Steve; Mansfield, Brian (March 31, 2009)
"ALBUMS"
''

''. Retrieved 2013-07-20) Chuck Arnold of ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of propert ...

'' magazine also gave the album three-out-of-four stars and found that DeGraw "gets back to his soulful essence on this simple, stripped-down collection of early and new songs."Arnold, Chuck (April 6, 2009), "QUICK CUTS". ''People''. 71 (13):49

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

of Allmusic gave the album 3 out of 5 stars saying, "He could use at least one hook as big as "I Don't Wanna Be," but Free manages to flow easily and warmly, something that couldn't quite be said of the blue-eyed soul bluster of his first two albums."

Track listing

All songs written by Gavin DeGraw, except "Indian Summer" by

Chris Whitley Christopher Becker Whitley (August 31, 1960 – November 20, 2005) was an American blues/rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. During his 25-year career he released more than a dozen albums, had two songs in the top 50 of the Billboard mainst ...

. #"Indian Summer" – 4:43 #"Free" – 3:56 #"Stay" – 3:33 #"Mountains to Move" – 5:46 #"Glass" – 3:53 #"Lover Be Strong" – 4:28 #"Dancing Shoes" – 3:46 #"Waterfall" – 4:41 #"Why Do the Men Stray?" – 3:05

Bonus tracks

iTunes exclusive bonus track #

"Never the Same" – 4:19 Amazon.com exclusive bonus track #

"Young Love" – 3:46 (outtake) Pre-order bonus track #

"Get Lost" – 4:06 (outtake)

Personnel

Musicians *Piano, synthesizers, vocals, acoustic guitar - Gavin DeGraw *Guitar - Audley Freed *Bass -

Andy Hess Andy Hess (born December 4, 1966) is an American bassist and former member of Gov't Mule, having joined the band in 2003. Previously, he was The Black Crowes' bassist from February 2001 until their hiatus early the following year. He has also ...

*B3, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, ARP String Ensemble - George Lanks *Drums -

Charley Drayton Charles Leslie Drayton (born May 9, 1965) is an American multi-instrumentalist and producer, known primarily as a drummer. Artists he has recorded or performed with include The Cult, Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Mil ...

Except on "Waterfall" *Vocals - Gavin DeGraw *Guitar, omnichord - Jack Petrucelli *Bass - Alvin Moody *Drums -

Matt Flynn Matthew Clayton Flynn (born June 20, 1985) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He was a member of the Packers when they won Super Bowl XLV over the P ...

Charts

''Free'' entered the ''Billboard'' 200 at #19,"Week Ending April 5, 2009: A Prince Beats A King (Of Pop)"
.

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

selling 29,000 copies, whereas his previous album ''

'' debuted at #7 in May 2008, selling 66,000 copies."Diamond Dominates Billboard 200 With First No. 1"
''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' In its second week, ''Free'' dropped to #97, a drop of seventy-eight places.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2009 albums Gavin DeGraw albums J Records albums