Label
	Compadre
	Release
	2002
	Artist
	Billy Joe Shaver
	Rating

This is my second in a series of Billy Joe Shaver Compadre Records reviews, a label which doesn’t seem to put a foot wrong - but then Billy Joe Shaver rarely does anyway. Freedom’s Child is probably my favourite Billy Joe Shaver album because the quality of the songs and the meanings behind them don’t let up for a second.

If you’ve got the actual CD version you get the privelage of the booklet which contains lyrics for each song along with a short passage by Billy Joe describing the story behind each one and why he wrote it. He covers a large spectrum of feelings and thoughts from the power he’s found in love in Hold On To Yours (And I’ll Hold On To Mine), to the blues of divorce in Drinkin’ Back. The title track Freedom’s Child is an exceptional song with a very powerful message about America’s soldiers. Billy Joe says that “In a perfect world, everyone would understand this song.”

You’ve gotta love That’s Why The Man In Black Sings The Blues, a song which is probably a tribute to Johnny Cash’s style of music - I thought it was Johnny Cash first time I heard it! My favourite songs on the album are Honey Chile and Corsicana Daily Sun. The latter is about Billy Joe’s youth, a time when things were simpler and delivering the Corsicana Daily Sun is a memory he won’t forget. I love the amount of detail in the song about things he remembers such as the smell of his grandma’s apple pie, and the warm sunlight flickering across the clover fields of his old hometown. It would be great to write about things you can remember like that - I can’t even remember what happened last week!

I recommend you track down a CD version of this album as the booklet really makes it worth the extra you might have to pay over a download. I got mine for a bargain…. and it’s signed by Billy Joe himself: