Over the course of his career, singer/songwriter and Americana artist Tom Freund has released more than a dozen records, collaborated with legends such as Elvis Costello, Phil Lesh and Jackson Browne, pulled a half-decade stint on bass for alt-country pioneers The Silos, and has shared bills with everyone from Matthew Sweet to Guided by Voices. Freund’s intimate, heartfelt new solo album, East of Lincoln, (available now via Surf Road Records) chronicles a personal journey along the path from self-doubt to enlightenment. “Time to take the wheel and turn this thing around / Time to make a deal and see what’s going down,” he affirms on “Runaround.” Freund takes his time and lets these new songs simmer, and that—along with memorable guest spots from longtime friend and collaborator Ben Harper and an all-star cast of session players—is a big part of the record’s charm.
Much of the record—co-produced by Freund and Sejo Navajas (Smoke Season’s Gabrielle Wortman, Vintage Trouble)—is devastatingly raw. The primarily acoustic arrangements are livened up with some spectacular drumming from Matt Johnson (St. Vincent, Jeff Buckley) and Michael Jerome (Toadies, John Cale, Blind Boys of Alabama), pedal and lap steel from Ben Peeler (Dawes, Shelby Lynne, Father John Misty), keys from Rami Jaffe (Foo Fighters, Ryan Adams) and Chris Joyner (Sara Bareilles, Rickie Lee Jones) and violin from Jessy Greene (Wilco, The Jayhawks). But even with all these studio heavyweights on call, Freund is front and center on the record, singing and playing an eclectic mix of instruments including guitar, mandolin, ukulele, synth and his signature upright bass.
Ben Harper, who produced Freund’s 2008 record Collapsible Plans, lends his vocals to “Abandoning the Ship” and supplies steel guitar to ethereal closing track, “Dream On (Believe in Yourself).” Grammy-winning mixer Jim Scott, known for his work with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Wilco, Ron Sexmsith, Alejandro Escovedo, Lucinda Williams and many more, steps in for several sterling moments as well, leaving his sonic stamp on title song “East of Lincoln,” dreamy standout “Homer Simpson’s Clouds (Day of the Locust)” and dusky saloon romper “Poached Eggs.”
Glide is thrilled to premiere the video for “Homer Simpson’s Clouds (Day of the Locust)” a deliciously comforting song that combines the distinctive Americana of Josh Ritter and Neil Finn’s knack for melody. Freund collaborated with video animator Swampy Marsh from Surfer Jack Productions through his work on the Amazon show Pete the Cat…
For his latest television project, Amazon show Pete The Cat, Freund co-wrote, sung and played songs with Elvis Costello, KT Tunstall, Dave Matthews and Diana Krall, and also co-wrote the show’s theme song with creator Marsh. Costello takes lead vocals on each episode’s opening theme with Freund handling backing vocals and most of the instruments. Freund also co-wrote and sings the show’s end-credits song, “Go Pete Go.”
Please read below on Freund’s inspiration behind the song named after America’s longest-running show…
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One of my all time favorite books is The Day of the Locust by Nathaneal West. It was written way back in the 1930s, but it’s still relevant today. It’s a genius portrayal of all the disillusioned people who come to California looking for excitement, and movie stars and orange groves; but then when they finally made it here, they never really got what was promised. In the book, the people eventually rebel and try to burn the city down with torches. Homer Simpson is one of the characters in the book and I suspect that the makers of The Simpsons also love this novel, and that there are parallels between the Homer Simpson characters in both. The Homer from the TV show further represents a kind of everyman hero. We’d all rather be up in the clouds drinking beer, escaping work, relaxing, having some donuts. So the song I wrote is a mass clash of the themes and names, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
The idea for the song came to me one day when I was on tour, staying at my friend Brett Dennen’s house in this little mountain town Southeast of Sacramento called Strawberry. I was looking up at the clouds in the Northern California sky, and I picked up Brett’s 12-string and started writing about how the clouds at the beginning of The Simpsons made me feel.
The song is an escape from the mundane, from the situation happening down below. I sang about a disgruntled America, about our current president and this feeling of frantic-ness and not getting what we deserve—in our jobs, in our lives and as citizens of this country. About people not getting paid enough for their work. And right now, in the middle of this pandemic, for so many people there is no work. So I hope the song is a vehicle for escape and transcendence from the everyday. And the animated video really enhances this feeling—the artists understood where I was coming from in the song.
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