Last week seems like a fever dream. There was a 7-hour drive through the night from Nashville to Mobile that cumulated in not being able to get into the Airbnb and having to stay at a very sketchy Red Roof Inn. Then, there were all of the weather conditions that just shit all on the SoBros parade, forcing the practices of the Senior Bowl to be indoors thus not allowing media into the practice sessions. Then there was an actual parade. The weather kept a lot of people away, leaving the participants in the parade with extra goodies to throw out. I was hit with full bags of Mardi Gras beads and actual full boxes of Moon Pies. I repeat, I had a full box of Moon Pies thrown at my chest.
Through all of the craziness, I was left with a smooth, calming album to dive into and help me relax.
Sam Weber Get Free
Canadian-born songwriter and guitarist Sam Weber has had to come face-to-face with the realities of recording music in the pandemic, like all musicians have. He quickly learned that he just had to start somewhere. That somewhere was a Hollywood apartment that he and his partner and co-producer Mallory Hauser lived and recorded in, and the finished product was a carefree collection of songs that speaks to the heart.
Get Free is Weber’s first pandemic release and his first since 2019’s Everything Comes True. The record is full of waves, flowing from folk to jazz to old country. The album’s opening song, “Truth or Lie,” hits you in the gut with the opening line. Weber sings, “My girl got engaged to some guy before she even knew my name” detailing his admiration for someone from afar that he never worked up the courage to talk to. The song describes living your life in the shadows while someone lives it for you, and you live out your remaining years shacking up with regrets.
Weber’s songwriting is the star of the show on Get Free and is on full display on “Get Out of the Game.” The song is about saying goodbye to one chapter of your life and starting over from scratch. “Get Out of the Game” makes the listener want to grab the keys to the car and drive until your problems can no longer be seen in the rearview mirror.
Weber, Hauser, and collaborator Danny Austin-Manning decided to approach recording the album in some unconventional methods during the pandemic. “Danny would come over and the three of us would turn on the microphones and give these wild, unchained performances of the material,” Weber recalls. “Because our only option was to make it in our house, it gave us permission to let it be what was going to be and not get wrapped up in the details, and in turn, I think that allowed the veil between the performances and the hearts of each song to be very thin. I called the record Get Free because each performance of each song was a moment of transcendence and an escape for us from an otherwise odd, restrictive time.”
Get Free is part Americana, part experimental, and completely worth a listen. Get Free, the fruit of these sessions, is out for the world to hear—a world slightly more normal than when the album was tracked, but still close enough in memory for the whole of it to resonate clearly.
Weber is gearing up to take Get Free on tour in February and March including a stop in Chattanooga on March 11 at The Woodshop. @samwebermusic
Steven McCash is the Lead Music Writer and Utility Man for SoBros Network. Steven is the host of the ‘Drinking With…’ podcast, and the pioneer of New Music Friday, highlighting each week’s new releases in the world of music in addition to the occasional live show review. He also pitches in as a Nashville lifestyle writer and football analyst (hence the ‘Utility Man’ title). Follow on Twitter: @MC_Cash75
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