In 1968, 19-year-old Don Freed found himself backstage at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and Johnny Cash.
He had five minutes with the Man in Black.
A film crew working on the documentary Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music captured an exchange between the country icon and the slim teen from Saskatoon in hollow sound and grainy colour.
"You write songs? I'd like to hear some of your stuff," said Cash.
"Let's get this done. I've come all this way," Freed responded.
He played Come Away From The Roadside, a plaintive and earnest ballad, then Bank of Mariposa.
Cash was attentive and complimentary, promising to arrange a record company meeting. The final scene of the documentary sequence has Freed doing a grinning pirouette.
Wow - great insight into building a song from scratch to demo to studio to master recording - thanks so much Brad and Steve for this look back to a great era in music!!
I found the misunderstanding around the radiator and the album name to be hilarious. I’d never seen a radiator until 2014 and the idea of a radiator bag is alien to me now as it was six years ago!
That's a great story (and I have at least one album recorded live at McCabes!)
There are some funny parallels to the story that opens this profile of Don Freed (also, coincidentally associated with Joni Mitchell) though in slightly better circumstances -- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/don-free-metis-musician-1.4970162
In 1968, 19-year-old Don Freed found himself backstage at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and Johnny Cash.
He had five minutes with the Man in Black.
A film crew working on the documentary Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music captured an exchange between the country icon and the slim teen from Saskatoon in hollow sound and grainy colour.
"You write songs? I'd like to hear some of your stuff," said Cash.
"Let's get this done. I've come all this way," Freed responded.
He played Come Away From The Roadside, a plaintive and earnest ballad, then Bank of Mariposa.
Cash was attentive and complimentary, promising to arrange a record company meeting. The final scene of the documentary sequence has Freed doing a grinning pirouette.
...
Wow - great insight into building a song from scratch to demo to studio to master recording - thanks so much Brad and Steve for this look back to a great era in music!!
I found the misunderstanding around the radiator and the album name to be hilarious. I’d never seen a radiator until 2014 and the idea of a radiator bag is alien to me now as it was six years ago!