Bry Webb’s sophomore solo effort, Free Will, is all quiet muscle and calm power. He’s still drawing inspiration from his experiences as a father and husband, but those emotions and attitudes have become more complex in the years since Provider. Those circumstances have come together to form a focused, thoughtful, and nuanced collection of songs.
“Fletcher” does an excellent job of setting the tone for the album, sounding reserved but defiant as Webb repeats the phrase, “no higher power could hold me to the ground,” over lilting pedal steel and finger-picked guitar. The hurdy gurdy on “Let’s Get Through Today” makes for a cinematic nostalgia, like sun filtering through trees on Super 8 film, making the impact of its coda – “the more fucked up things get, the more I love you” – that much deeper. “What Part of You” is a simple acoustic strummer, backed by the wavery vibrato of lap steel, with Jennifer Castle helping Webb drive home the chorus: “now love, there there/stay here with me, everywhere/I’ll stay, and always/I’m gonna love the part of you that can’t be saved.”
The second last song on the record proper, and the last you hear of Webb’s voice, is “Big Smoke,” originally written for a movie titled, This Beautiful City. It’s a gorgeous, affecting tune built on a melodic guitar riff that ducks in and out of following the ups and downs of Webb’s own vocals. The last words on Free Will are, more or less, a call-to-arms: “death to our misgivings.” It’s a triumphant and powerful way to end a record that spends so much time dealing with the sort of situations that easily evoke self-doubt and confusion. Free Will is the sound of a man who might not know exactly what he’s doing all the time, but knows what he loves, what that love means, and why it’s worth holding on to, no matter what. (Idée Fixe, brywebb.com) Matt Williams