Anne Freeman Strikes Gold On New Album "Keep It Close"
Anne Freeman is a little bit country and a lotta bit rock and roll. Though she’s from the Deep South of the Mississippi Delta, she was raised on many of the classic rock staples that Baby Boomers passed down to Millenials via their record collections. In fact, Freeman told me that she “despised country music growing up,” when we chatted shortly before the release of her new album Keep It Close. “We were a Beatles family and there was a lot of Motown on the stereo. But it was a thing how much I disliked country music.”
That little bit of twang and country ‘tude that bubbles to the surface at times on Keep It Close, worked its way into Freeman’s songwriting a little later on, but according to her own account, how it got there remains a mystery. Perhaps it was the bustling music scene in Oxford, Mississippi, the place Freeman has called home for many years, but whatever the source, it definitely seeps through at several points on the record, most notably in the emphatic first verse of the album’s second track, “I Don’t Wanna Want You,” where Freeman sings with conviction: “You've been out there cheatin'. Yeah, I caught you sleepin' with that whore.” It has a serious “dug my keys into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive” kinda vibe, and Freeman totally makes it work, but that’s really just the icing on the cake when it comes to her strong and infectious brand of songwriting.
Even with some of these definite country tinges, Keep It Close is power pop in the purest sense, but it took Freeman a little while to get to the point where she felt comfortable exploring a style of music that came naturally for her. After stints playing in and around Oxford’s jam band scene, an experience that didn’t quite jive with her keen pop sensibilities, Freeman took a break from songwriting, but reemerged with a newfound passion to pursue it on her own terms. “I wanted the focus [of the songs] to be on the melodies. That’s the one thing I’m really proud of with the record. I wanted it to be happy and catchy.”
The songs on Keep It Close are, without question, dangerously catchy. They’re built on a solid, no-frills melodic foundation that can be traced back to those Beatles records that Freeman first heard as a child. She wastes no time opening up the floodgates to unleash some Fab 4-styled guitar hooks, as the opening track, “City Watched Me Burn,” kicks off with some pristine sounding open chord guitar strums. The jangly riffs continue to ring out, as she sings from the perspective of the morning after, licking her booze-soaked wounds and reflecting on a period when her life was in a bit of a holding pattern. The specific night that inspired the tune was about as epic as the song sounds: “One night my husband and I went up to Nashville, we went to see one of our favorite bands, Whitney. After the show, we met Michelle Branch at a bar. It was a wild night where we painted the town red.” The night’s events were so impactful that wrote the song the very next day: “We were at my parent’s place in Greenwood. My dad was playing bass, my husband was playing drums, and I came up with the melody. The line ‘last night the city watched me burn’ just kinda popped out.”
“City Watched Me Burn” is probably the cream of the crop on a record with a lot of shining moments. It’s an anthemic and feel good track that immediately ropes you in, making it a perfect opener, but it’s also an introduction to a varied collection of solid songs. Elsewhere, Freeman incorporates some denser arrangements, adding instrumental accents that help accentuate some of her more personal lyrical moments. On “When I’m A Wreck,” Freeman’s words are closely followed by a series of lushly orchestrated strings that make her lyrics more emotionally resonant, particularly in the chorus, where she pays tribute to unconditional love: “You get me more than myself. You protect me from myself. You love me when I'm a wreck.” Freeman also unveils more clever songwriting tricks on “I’ve Got A Knife,” where her dreamy voice and the song’s rising melody manage to make the somewhat threatening lyrical content sound inviting. As it turns out, Freeman carries a knife with her at all times, and so does her backing band, but the refrain “I’ve got a knife, you should know '' lands soft and deceptively sweet - a bit of an inconspicuous warning not to mess with her.
Though the record is mostly jangly, upbeat, and bright, Freeman proves that she can slow things down and open up a bit more on songs like “Loose Connection” and “Easy on Me.” The former is a bit more fleshed out in the vein of “When I’m A Wreck,” but “Easy on Me” is quite stripped down, showing that Freeman can command a song with just her emotive voice and vivid guitar playing. It’s a perfect segue to the reflective closer, “Waiting On A Sign,” where Freeman ponders next steps while simultaneously waxing nostalgic.
With the world opening up and a new sense of post-pandemic normalcy taking hold, Freeman and her band have their sights set on hitting the road and bringing the songs on Keep It Close to audiences across the country. When writing these songs, Freeman had how they’d translate in the live setting at the forefront of her mind: “I wanted to write songs that really grab audiences and that really rock. That’s one of the major things that I kept in mind when writing this album.” The recorded versions certainly achieve that goal in more ways than one, so seeing and hearing these songs come alive on stage is definitely going to be a treat.
Keep It Close is out now via Muscle Beach Records. You can purchase the album on Bandcamp and stream it on Spotify. Keep up with Freeman by following her on Instagram and liking her on Facebook.
