Reviews of Free Country One and Two

“Harrison suggests the music of the future.”
– Irish Times

“The most singular vision you are likely to encounter all year.”
– London Times

“Guitarist-singer Harrison describes his music as a trip “along the seams of jazz, country, blues and spirituals, using country classics, hymns and folk tunes as a gateway to creative music-making.” That’s an ambitious task, but he brings it off, with considerable help from saxophonist David Binney, in a collection filled with surprising, but utterly convincing, shifts of musical emphasis. Harrison is on to something both innovative and compelling, and he deserves a much wider hearing.”
– Don Heckman, LA Times, Best of 2004

“Harrison has melded the disparate genres of country and jazz, and he’s arranged them beautifully with reharmonized chords and unfolding organic grooves that give pianist Uri Caine and saxophonist Dave Binney cause to soar. Using a repertoire of country-pop and age-old traditional songs Harrison has purposefully elevated the mundane into the pithy and profound. He has accomplished something here that is easily understood by the masses and gives jazzheads enough meat for repeated listening. It’s all very affecting, often very sorrowful, and very good.”
– James Rozzi, Jazziz

“Norah Jones adds her soft drawl to a somber, soulful reading of Johnny Cash’s I Walk the Line and an equally adventurous Tennessee Waltz. But by the time this transcendent record is over, you nearly forget Jones was even on it. Harrison has created a grand tribute to divergent musical genres, which he shows have more in common than anyone would have guessed.”
– Marcus Croder: Sacramento Bee

“From the first note Harrison shows that American traditional and country music can swing in a Jazz context… his guitar solos are straight from the heart- pure sweat…”
– Biloxi Sun Herald

“This is the creative step beyond Bill Frisell’s omnistyle Appalachian melt… a wild, willful, and often beautiful jazz journey.”
– Jeff Simon: Buffalo News

“Harrison, a terrific guitarist, finds jazzy and spacious new depths in this mesmerizing release.”
– Village Voice

“…drags American roots out of the campfire singalong into the solar system.”
– Village Voice

-“It is pointless to try to snare Harrison in one genre as he artfully flies by such nets.”
– Cormac Larkin: Sunday Tribune (Ireland)

“Already the record of the year.”
– Horst Thomas/ Jazzthetik

Check out the Discography Page on Free Country for more info, audio samples, and to Buy the Album!

Check out the Discography Page on Free Country 2: So Long 2nd Street for more info, audio samples, and to Buy the Album!

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