Freedom Highway

Giddens powerful voice promises “You can’t take my soul” in the first of several songs blatantly evoking slavery in a collection that looks unflinchingly at America’s troubling history and the African American experience. The album is mostly original compositions with a fresh and new sound but it’s built solidly in traditional American roots and gospel music.  The few covers include “Birmingham Sunday,” a gospel composition from the 1960s commemorating the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, Mississippi John Hurt’s classic American murder ballad, “Angels Laid Him Away,” and the Staple Singers classic as the title track. Interspersing songs set during slavery, the civil rights movement, the Civil War, modern police shootings, and Jim Crow makes it a tough, beautiful, and important listen--they fit together way to well and we need to do better.