Liberty Now! is raw, restless music—built from traditions the quartet clearly knows and loves, but twisted into shapes that speak to the fractured moment we’re living in.
Corner Store Jazz
Phil Haynes – drums; Hank Roberts – cello, vocals; Jim Yanda – guitar; Drew Gress – bass
It’s been over a decade since drummer and composer Phil Haynes last recorded with Free Country, and Liberty Now! marks their return with a full set of new material. The quartet—Haynes, cellist/vocalist Hank Roberts, guitarist Jim Yanda, and bassist Drew Gress—sounds fully in sync, but what emerges is anything but predictable. The music nods to Americana and string-band traditions, yet it’s twisted, unsettling, and disorienting, a reflection of the chaos around us. They’ve pushed the improvisational edge even further: melodies bend, rhythms stagger and stumble, and instruments collide in ways that can be jarring, hypnotic, and sometimes even mesmerizing.
The album opens with Yanda’s ‘Situation Ethnics,’ a hoedown-tinged string band shuffle where country picking scrapes against the push and pull of jazz improvisation. The cello often takes on the role of a bluegrass fiddle, weaving in and out of a bowed bass that slinks along in the shadows. Haynes ’drums anchor the group with deceptively simple stick work, yet there’s a constant sense of collision and conversation.
‘Past Time’ continues with Gress ’bass resonant and earthy, holding a foundation without forcing the music into a tidy pattern. Yanda’s guitar is precise and melodic, with a touch of Wes Montgomery’s articulation, even if the notes don’t linger in the air the same way. The instruments largely move independently, each following its own path, sometimes drifting past one another. Free Country’s music isn’t about conventional cohesion—it’s untamed and exploratory, with individual voices pursuing their own logic. The tension in that independence is what makes the music compelling.
From the opening notes, this double album can feel jarring. For listeners who cherish country, bluegrass, and traditional Americana string-band music, Free Country’s treatment of those sounds may initially come across as distorted, even antagonistic—as if the quartet were twisting familiar traditions into unrecognizable shapes. It recalls that old dustup between Buddy Rich and Charlie Daniels over whether jazz and country could ever share common ground.
But given time, another picture emerges. The group isn’t trying to replicate or even parody Americana—they’re reshaping it, bending it into something raw, unpredictable, and oddly compelling. Haynes, Roberts, Yanda, and Gress approach these traditions with improviser’s instincts, pulling them apart and reassembling them into music that resists easy categories.
‘Corner Store Strut’ introduces a buoyant shuffle, the cello and guitar playing in tandem with the bass to suggest a larger ensemble. Yanda’s picked lines recall the finesse of Pat Martino, while Haynes ’drums provide both swing and propulsion. Roberts“ ’Joy” contrasts with bowed cello and vocals that feel classical, old-time, and faintly eerie—music that could easily soundtrack a period film set in the rural South.
The second disc sets the new material alongside pieces from Free Country’s earlier American Trilogy, grounding the album in the group’s own history with Americana. ‘The Way the West Was Won’ and the Beatles ’’Revolution’ show off their playful side, while Roberts ’readings of ‘What a Wonderful World’ and the abstract ‘America the Beautiful’ strip familiar melodies to their emotional core. Heard against today’s backdrop of political turmoil, these choices land with sharper resonance.
What makes Liberty Now! stand out is its ability to swing between tenderness and discord without ever losing its bite. Each player follows an independent path, yet the music connects in ways that feel both rooted and unpredictable.
Liberty Now! is raw, restless music—built from traditions the quartet clearly knows and loves, but twisted into shapes that speak to the fractured moment we’re living in. Free Country may not sound like any string band you’ve heard before, but that’s exactly the point.
