Freedom Lane Experiment-Part I

The news leaked out overnight. The publicist tried to keep the lid on, but there was always a mouse in the church so to speak. We were still friends and didn’t think it a big deal, but ain’t it funny how love is. Word thundered across the airwaves and around the world…Freedom Alley had disbanded. Phone calls started pouring in and everyone wanted a statement, but we just stayed silent for the course. Let everyone think what they wanted.

The facts were sort of dry. Mark and Walt had come to the end of their creative tether and Wally couldn’t put a band-aid on this one. There was a bit of drama, to be sure, but nothing like the ‘big split’ that the rags put out. Truth is, we had always let our music speak for itself. A little thing like breaking up wasn’t going to change that. There was something else urging us on…something strong blowing in the wind and we wanted to take the ride.

Our old fifth wheel, whom we hadn’t seen for years, came back in the picture. No one knew where Bruce had been or even how long he’d hang around, he kept it a mystery. But, it was sure nice to see him and feel the music again. We wasted little time talking about the past and started playing around with some new musical ideas. Bruce was always one to push the envelope and everything seemed right to make a change. Maybe we were just too stubborn to do the ‘greatest hits’ package. Maybe it was Bruce turning up the heat, but next thing we knew the magic had begun again.

Another big change in direction came out of nowhere in the form of Chris. The new sounds he was hearing exploded his creativity. His experiments with the keyboards very frankly blew all of us away. The writing was pouring out of us and our process became simple. We would let Chris warm up, turn on the recorder and grab any lyrics laying about for an impromptu session. Chris called it filler, but we knew better. The beauty of what we created is that we had no idea how it would turn out. Best of all, there were no ‘Freedom Chains’ to tie us down. Here then, is Part I of our Freedom Lane Experiment. This was an excursion far deeper and more intense than anything Freedom Alley had done before. The best fun we had in years.

---