The good times had come and gone. History had been made and milestones reached, but somewhere along the line our footsteps drifted away from each other. Mark had begun his experiments in redefining folk and bluegrass music and had only started the journey to capture his muse. Some of his best efforts were yet to happen. Walt was still capable of dropping our jaws with his other-worldly guitar work. Yet, he had abandoned the notion of Freedom Alley long ago and had drifted further into the soul with his own musical passages. Chris, the quiet one, busied himself with his compositions and the symphonies he heard were singular and private. He would explode in the coming years with a whole new sound that would take the world by storm, but those days were yet to come. Wally had drifted from his multiple peaks and valleys and had rekindled the flame of writing, but his ramblings went far beyond the boundaries that Freedom Alley could hold. Instinctively, each member of the band knew this was the end. Still, there was a yearning to continue the brotherhood that had gotten them this far.

Of course, the business side still dictated one more mammoth tour, one more outpouring of the soul laid bare before millions. There had been great dissension in the ranks and studio time together had become increasingly rare. Indeed, it seemed that our best days were behind us and the alchemy that was artistic direction had been blown out on the trail. Perhaps it was closure to the legacy, a final defining moment for Freedom Alley that would ease the burden of calling it quits and maybe one last goodbye to our fans and to each other that would somehow allow us to move on.

Out of this struggle to define ourselves came the release of perhaps some of our finest works to date. Surely, we had nothing to prove and the music laid down on these tracks shows the complexity of Freedom Alley like nothing else that had come before. Our core strength, improvisation, came through during these sessions perhaps stronger than at any other time. As always, we were committed to recording live so that we could capture everything, blemishes and all, for that mystical spontaneous combustible sound we were fortunate enough to capture…if even for a moment.

Listening to these musical adventures is a journey deep into each one of our hearts and souls, but it is also an experience and celebration of our souls combined…this incarnation of Freedom Alley was a conglomerate of individuals pulled together for one last hurrah, one last attempt to close the book. Then again, as we all know, Freedom Alley didn’t dissolve after these sessions and continued on to other, even more intense adventures. For giving up on what defined us proved quite impossible and, fortunately, the music appearing on this volume of the archive series showed that indeed, it was a long way home. Enjoy the walk.

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Are you enjoying this music? How about a few others like this?

Freedom Alley Volume I ; Freedom Alley Volume IV ; Freedom Alley Volume V