Jamie Freeman shares new single and video
Single release: 4th October 2019
Label: Union Music
More info: Jamie Freeman’s website
Praise for 'Dreams About Falling':
"...a musical tour de force, and undoubtedly his best release to date, and one can only see Jamie‘s star ascending as a result." - Folk Radio UK
"Heart-stopping" - MOJO
"Just about perfect... highlights the great things about Jamie's writing." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Maverick
"Freeman hovers between the narrative talents of Pete Townshend, Ray Davies and other 60's luminaries..." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - R'N'R Magazine
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Today, Jamie Freeman has shared a brand new video for "The Fire" after it premiered at Billboard yesterday where the moving visuals where described as "emotional". The track is taken from Freeman's latest album "Dreams About Falling" which was released earlier in the year via Union Music Label, to critical acclaim.
"The Fire" was co-written with the multi-award-winning Ben Glover. The song was written after the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in 2017 and uses powerful imagery to invoke moving scenes of spirits, smoke, and betrayal. Talking of its creation, Freeman has said,
“The Grenfell story isn’t mine to tell, I wasn’t there – I experienced the horror at distance along with the rest of the country. But as a songwriter I felt a strong emotional need to honour the event and the people. So The Fire was written about the physical ‘being’ of the fire itself; an unfeeling force that simply does what it does, regardless. The song alludes to the controversy surrounding the disaster but I knew I didn’t want to write a straight protest song; it seemed too important to be mired in that. Little did we know that two years later the story would still be rumbling on.”
“Although I was in Nashville at the time I was determined to write the song with a fellow Brit, someone who would feel it a bit closer to home. So I called Ben Glover from Northern Ireland who now lives over there, and he was the perfect writing partner for the song.”
Purchase "Dreams About Falling"
Freeman is currently supporting Wade Bowen on their European tour, after which he will return to the UK for shows supporting Good Lovelies and Jo Harman as well as playing the Mid-Sussex Americana & Ale Festival and a headline show in Southsea on October 25th. Full dates can be found below.
2019 Live Dates:
August 1st - Manchester, UK - Gullivers*
August 2nd - Glasgow, UK - Òran Mór*
August 3rd - Hamburg, Germany - NOCHTWACHE*
August 4th - Berlin, Germany - Privatclub*
August 5th - München, Germany - folks! club*
August 6th - Köln, Germany - Blue Shell*
August 13th - London, UK - Green Note+
Aug 14th - Leicester, UK - The Musician+
August 15th - Crawley, UK - The Hawth+
August 24th - Hassocks, UK - Mid-Sussex Americana & Ale Fest
October 25th - Southsea, UK - The Tea Tray
November 9th - Horsham, UK - The REC Rooms~
~ Supporting Jo Harman
+ Supporting Good Lovelies
* Supporting Wade Bowen
More on 'Dreams About Falling':
“‘Dreams About Falling’ alludes to the fine line between flying and falling, succeeding or failing. Some of the songs are about childhood or upbringing, how that shapes an adult and how they remember and deal with those memories. That feeling of doing something exciting and scary, or waking from a dream just before you hit the ground.”
Jamie Freeman returns with perhaps his most startlingly honest and remarkably vulnerable album yet, with the release of ‘Dreams About Falling’, in May 2019 via Union Music Label. Produced in Nashville by Grammy-nominated Neilson Hubbard, Freeman skilfully tackles subjects such as parental expectations, childhood potential, and facing up to the possibility of falling short of those aspirations. These themes may be further understood when the context of Freeman’s talented family is brought into the picture. With a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning brother, Martin, and Frazier Chorus indie-dance musician (signed to 4AD, Virgin) brother, Tim, one can imagine that the family outlook has always been to ‘aim high’.
Jamie Freeman has found his own path, however, and become a respected figure within the Americana music scene after releasing his debut record ‘Just You’ in 2011, follow-up ‘100 Miles From Town’ in 2013 (under the name The Jamie Freeman Agreement) and EP ‘Hasia Dreams’ in 2017, all to critical acclaim from the likes of Americana UK, RnR, Maverick, FATEA, and more. A testament to the reputation Freeman has built is the impressive roster of collaborators and producers that have lent themselves to his projects; not only is the album produced by the acclaimed Neilson Hubbard, who has been attached to some of the finest Americana records of the past decade (most recently Mary Gauthier’s Rifles and Rosary Beads), Jamie has also worked with the likes of Angaleena Presley, Mark Chadwick, Larkin Poe, Wild Ponies, Ben Glover, and Michael Logen.
Freeman's list of co-writers and contributors on ‘Dreams About Falling’ reads like a who's who of Nashville's finest. One particular highlight is ‘Down Range’, a heartbreaking tale of a Gulf War veteran returning to his wife that the Pistol Annies singer and solo artist Angaleena Presley duetted with Freeman on especially for this album. Presley actually co-wrote one of the final tracks on the record ‘I Miss Those Bars’, which Freeman explains is, “about the fear of having to fend for oneself, even if that freedom is what we desire. If we attain that freedom how will we cope? She has written and talked about hardships close to home to do with the opioid epidemic leading to addiction and prison. I had my own second-hand experience with alcohol.”
‘Down Range’ is swiftly followed by the equally poignant track ‘The Fire’, a song co-written by Ben Glover whose latest release ‘Shorebound’ won UK Album of the Year at the UK Americana Awards 2019. The track itself was written after the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in 2017 and uses powerful imagery to invoke moving scenes of spirits, smoke, and betrayal. On its creation, Freeman has said, “I didn’t want to write a political song, and I didn’t feel I had the authority to write *specifically* about Grenfell, but I wanted to honour the event and the people, so we wrote about the physical being of the fire itself; an unfeeling force that simply does what it does.”
Jamie’s commitment to music doesn’t end with his own releases. Freeman produced the critically-acclaimed 'Not Waving But Drowning' and 'Dead Stars' by The Self Help Group along with many other projects including the Noble Jacks debut 'What The Hammer' as well as taking on the role of drummer for Sam Outlaw and MD for Angaleena Presley's UK touring band. He's also a member of the Americana Music Association UK - working as their designer and volunteer, something that takes up a lot of his time and energy, but that Freeman is extremely dedicated to. “I like to take a 'high tide floats all boats' attitude to helping fellow musicians”, he explains.
“The last line in the closing song (Match Among The Ashes) says, ‘You’d believe that you can fly, because she told you, so you try.’ This is a direct reference to my own upbringing and the faith and belief that my mother instilled in me. The title is perhaps a reference to that, coupled with the fear of not living up to it.”
Find Jamie Freeman online: Website | Spotify | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Bandsintown