“I just wanted to make a legitimate record, an artist’s record for an artist’s fans,” Gavin DeGraw tells Billboard.com, referring to his new album Free. The pop rock artist’s third album hits store shelves today, and it has a more “spare, simple and rootsy” sound than his first two LPs, according to the site.
“I didn’t want to saturate the tracks with overdubs and flying guitars and unicorns and shit,” DeGraw said. “I wanted to keep everything out of the way and allow the songs to really be about what the songs are fundamentally, which is music and lyrics.”
Though Free’s sound may be simplified, DeGraw gathered a decorated band for the album’s recording. The lineup includes guitarist Audley Freed and bassist Andy Hess both of the Black Crowes, Keith Richards’ Charley Drayton on the drums, and Lenny Kravitz’s George Laks playing the keyboard.
The album opens with a cover of the late Chris Whitley’s “Indian Summer.”