Greg Brown ‘Freak Flag’ listening party and contest
Freak Flag (the Iowa native’s 24th studio album and first on Yep Roc) was recorded–for the most part–in Memphis, Tennessee’s time-tested rock’n’soul incubator Ardent Studios with the artist’s longtime sidekick/guitarist Bo Ramsey producing; it features nine Brown originals plus a gorgeous pair of cuts ‘borrowed’ from his mega-talented family–wife Iris Dement’s “Let the Mystery Be” and daughter Pieta Brown’s “Remember the Sun.”
Additionally–in an embarrassment of six-string riches–Ramsey’s trademark atmospheric soundscapes and stinging blues licks are augmented on a half-dozen tracks by studio legend Richard Bennett (Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Billy Joel, Dire Straits, etc.) plus–on the evocative, haunting “Flat Stuff”–an elegant cameo solo by Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler.