Freedom Highway - Made in 68 (2002)

Made in '68 was actually not made entirely in 1968. The first eight tracks of this previously unreleased material were recorded in November 1969, while the final five songs were done quite a bit earlier, in March 1968. While this is very much in the vein of amiable late-'60s San Francisco psychedelic rock, it's lacking in that identity, direction, or sparks of cutting-edge creativity that distinguished the front-line groups from the region. The Freedom Highway were a versatile lot, however, perhaps closest to Moby Grape of all the major Bay Area bands in their tone. Not that they were that close to Moby Grape, but they too combined hard rock with blues, country, and folk grace notes, as well as some decent group harmonies and slightly strident lead vocals. Among the 1968 tracks, "Heaven Train" and "Loretta" stand out as the better tracks with their country-folk influence, while the hard rock-psychedelic cover of the Remains' "Don't Look Back" isn't a bad idea. There's also a speckle of Who (in the guitar) and Stephen Stills (in the vocals) here and there, and the brasher Who influences are further to the fore on the slightly poppier 1968 cuts, particularly "Be My Friend.".