Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When a 28-year-old debut album is the artist's best..., January 26, 2001
Don't get me wrong: I'm a diehard Fogelberg fan. I last saw him in concert in 2000, the eleventh time I'd been to one of his shows. I own all his albums (except "Something Old, New, Borrowed and Some Blues" and the recent Christmas CD, which got an emphatic "Don't bother" from some friends who are equally ardent fans). I wore out the grooves on my Fogelberg albums in the 1970s learning to play guitar. But I'm also honest about someone who was for so long my musical idol: Nearly 20 albums and 30 years later, "Home Free" -- recorded in Nashville when he was a 22-year-old session man -- is arguably Fogelberg's best work.From the first ethereal strings of "To the Morning" to the lingering ending of "The River," this album stands as a quintessential example of Fogelberg's talent. There is little artifice here, musically or lyrically. (For all their strength, albums like "Netherlands" and "The Innocent Age" sometimes nearly topple from bombast.) In the context of such a great album, it's easy to embrace clunker lines like "far too many stars have fell on me" as idiom. The production -- and bass playing -- by Norbert Putnam is outstanding (he was also doing top-notch work with Eric Andersen at the time in Nashville). And Fogelberg's voice, though not as mature as in the middle years of his career before smoking roughened it, is pristine. (Listen to the last note of "Wysteria.") It's sad that after "The Innocent Age" in 1981 fine songs on Fogelberg albums became the exception rather than the rule. But, like all his fans, it irks me that he has been pigeon-holed by ballads like "Longer" and "Leader of the Band" and gets airtime only on easy-listening stations. Dan Fogelberg is a phenomenal talent, and I hope someday that he gets the credit he deserves. Meanwhile, I'll keep listening to classics like "Stars" and "Long Way Home" and "Looking for a Lady." For any artist, this album would be legacy enough.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bless You Dan - You are Home Free, February 19, 2008
I begin here not knowing how I can give this selection the proper reverence that it truly deserves. Who can tell me what beauty is? Or love? Or any of the elegant traits that you bestow upon us here? Words are used for lack of anything else. The true measure of this music is felt within and varies depending on how much emotion you let yourself feel. Yes, it's that incredible. And, to think it was your first effort. What a blessing that first one was, and still is Dan. The bliss and exhiliration I feel while listening is something I want always in my life. And, I'm sure everyone does. Stunning and beautiful.
People should not look for these songs on a greatest hits collection. For they exist here, contained within their own gem-like world unto themselves. Pure and crystalline. Not many knew about you then Dan. I was a fortunate one. But, soon the world came around. How could they not? The music ability was always formidable and would have been recognized. But, what we got as a bonus was your heart. Pouring emotion and hurt, love and regret into your songs. But with a silken tenderness that soothed all our fears.
You started out with fine acoustic guitar, soft piano lines and added pedal steel guitar, fiddle, cello to the selections whenever warranted. The landscape embraced the country air and thrived through the seasons. And, throughout it all, you taught us what it was to feel, to be human. We all, sometimes, need to be reminded of that.
The first song my newborn son heard was "To the Morning". It probably is my most favorite of yours. The soft anticipation of the dawning of a new day. The grace of the keyboards conveying gradual awakening. This is the magic of nature in music.
The delicate regret of seperation in the tender acoustic of "Stars" never falls into melancholy. You mourned but kept the passion. So well done Dan.
Your pedal steel ode "More Than Ever" was the musical equivalent to the need for love. Country infused and not a false note.
The sadness over the loss of love has never sounded as haunting and angelic as it does in "Be On Your Way". Slow, lilting acoustic and cello composition that eases the hurt. Throughout, you balance everything here. You give us upbeat, country-flavored tunes such as "Long Way Home" and "Anyway I Love You", which shows Nashville at it's finest production. You then, tone it down with the lovely acoustics of "Looking for a Lady" and "Wysteria", portaying the subjects with the correct nuance and feel of your vocals.
You finally end with the emotional undertow of "The River". A serious rendering of how are lives are just like that river. We may try to escape it, but it will be with us forever. A journey of discovery. An inevitability. A soft insistence of sound that builds, seduces and engulfs the listener. Masterful.
In closing Dan, thank-you for this music. My life certainly would have been poorer in many ways without it. But this, I feel, is your special one. God Bless You.
Your own, Metamorpho ;)
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most underrated records of all time, February 2, 2005
This record does not get the attention that it so desperately deserves. This may upset some, but I feel that if you add up the greatness of all of Dan's records, it will not even come close to being as wonderful as Home Free. To me, his later albums lack the raw emotion that this album so perfectly portrays. Every song on this album is great. Listen to the sheer beauty of Be on Your Way or the raw emotion of More Than Ever. This record is Dan's milestone. If you buy a Dan record, do not waste your time with the others, BUY THIS ONE. It goes downhill from here. Some of Souvnirs has that same feeling, but by Captured Angel almost all is lost. I'm not saying that the other albums are bad, but with an album as good as Home Free, the only place one can go is down. This album should be spoken in the same breath as the first CSN album, Neil Young's Harvest, and Jackson Browne's For Everyman. In fact, I would say that I listen to Home Free more than any of these albums, so stop reading this and buy it. You should certainly not be disappointed.
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~ Dan Fogelberg
~ Dan Fogelberg
~ Dan Fogelberg
~ Dan Fogelberg
~ Dan Fogelberg
album Home Free 
