Freeland | Mushroom | Tommy Wiggins | Interview
Freeland was a six piece country folk rock band from Minnesota that released a fantastic album in 1972. Freeland’s Tommy Wiggins on piano and vocals, has a rich solo career for several decades now, with a new album out.
Tommy Wiggins originally started in a band called Mushroom in late 60s and he’s as active as ever recently released a new solo album, ‘When My Brain Goes’. More than 50 years into his songwriting career, Tommy Wiggins continues to turn new corners. He’s a natural-born explorer, charting his own path through the intersecting worlds of rock, country, blues, soul, funk, and folk. The journey continues with ‘When My Brain Goes on Vacation,’ an album that dishes up 10 newly-written tracks from Wiggins’ melting pot of American roots music. ‘When My Brain Goes’ on Vacation was written and recorded in Nashville, TN, where Wiggins relocated a decade ago. The album takes full advantage of Nashville’s rich community of session musicians, with six different background vocalists and a dozen instrumentalists contributing to the various tracks.
Freeland reunited in 2006 to record ‘Almost Home,’ their second album. The story of Freeland could have ended there. But it didn’t. Five decades since their first LP, they’ve united once more to record ‘Ute Creek Eulogy,’ which was released July 18th, 2023. This interview with Tommy Wiggins was conducted Friday, April 21st 2023.
“Our mystical place of adventure”
Where and when did you grow up? Was music a big part of your family life? Did the local music scene influence you or inspire you to play music?
Tommy Wiggins: I grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota USA in the 50’s. My parents recognized my interest in music at an early age. I’d sit at my great uncle Charlie’s grand piano and hit notes and listen to them decay. I was hooked. In the mid 60’s there were a dozen teen clubs around that had rock and soul bands. I talked my dad into driving me to the Lion’s Den. After I got my license, I’d drive all over town to listen to bands. It was amazing!
For my eighth birthday my parents gave me a choice between a new Schwinn bike or an accordion. I was a fan of Lawrence Welk’s accordionist Myron Florin, and that made my decision. And I did get that bike later. When the British Invasion hit America, and Stax and Motown followed, I was all in. The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Carnaby Street clothes, hair over my ears in my Catholic high school. I already knew the keyboard, so my folks helped me buy a combo organ and amp and I started playing in high school bands. The first song I learned was ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ by the Animals.
You began your career in a band called Mushroom. Tell us about it. Who were other members of the band?
Ha! Mushroom was my hippie college band. Our setlist was Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Steve Miller Band, Grateful Dead, Spirit, Chambers Brothers, The Youngbloods and other bands of the late 60’s. I was lucky enough to hear all these bands when they came through town. Every one of them has been hugely influential. Guitarist Steve Heidepriem and drummer John Katsantonis are no longer with us, but bassist Rob Dimit and I recently wrote and recorded a couple songs. Mushroom lives!
What kind of clubs did you play? How much original material did you have? Did you record anything?
We were underage but were still able to play clubs. Two gigs stand out. Mushroom played an outdoor concert at Macalester College two weeks after Woodstock. My favorite club gig was in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, MN, and we got to see the house he grew up in. We all were just getting started writing songs around then. Unfortunately our van was stolen with all our gear in it, and we broke up shortly after that without recording anything.
What led you to the formation of Freeland?
After Mushroom, my roommate Jeff Schroeder started Harvest. Jeff grew up in south Texas and his bluesy, spiritual songs were not like anything I’d heard before. That’s when I started writing in earnest. We rehearsed and played a couple gigs at Macalester College. Harvest was the first all original band I experienced and from then on I knew that writing and performing my own music was where I was headed.
Freeland came next. I’d moved to Colorado with my then girlfriend/soon to be wife Georgia. We were living in a remote mountain cabin in a ghost town that used to be Freeland, coming to town every week to buy groceries and charge the car battery to power my Wurlitzer electric piano. We lived with kerosene lamps, a wood stove, water from the creek and an outhouse. It was an idyllic time and the songs started pouring out of me. Boz Metzdorf, who had been my songwriting and harmony-singing cheerleader, wrote me a letter saying that an acquaintance had offered to bankroll an album, and Boz asked if I was willing to come back to Minnesota, start a band, record an album and then move back to Colorado. I wrote back “when do we start?”
What influenced the band’s sound?
Each of the guys have their own musicality that they brought and still bring to the band. Coming of age during The Vietnam War, the back to the land movement, peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll, and all the different bands that were popular in the late 60′ influenced our sound. We had the three acoustic guitar/harmony Crosby, Stills & Nash folkie sound and the two blazing Almann Brothers electric guitars. Freeland is a free-spirited hippie country-folk-rock band, for sure.
The album was privately released. How many copies did you press?
We pressed a thousand copies. Each of us still has a couple. I’ve seen them for sale on the internet for $300! That blows my mind. Maybe we should do another pressing!
What’s the story behind your album? Where did you record it? What kind of equipment did you use and who was the producer? How many hours did you spend in the studio?
We recorded it like The Band’s ‘Music from Big Pink’ in a house owned by musician/engineer John Tuttle. Minimal tracks, no clock ticking and all focus. That first album ‘Headin’ Back,’ as in returning to Colorado, was our mystical place of adventure. The songwriter is always the producer of the song and has the last say, but Freeland’s all about choosing a song and then each of us figuring out our own contribution. We’ve got a lot of influences, but they always blend nicely.
“Every song takes you on a trip”
Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?
Every Freeland song is its own story universe, not sounding like the one before or the one after. But they’re all Freeland songs, written and performed when we were in our early to mid 20’s. We were all fresh, positive and hadn’t been beaten down with life’s blows yet. From the first song ‘Headin’ Back to Colorado’ to the side two closer ‘Harvest,’ every song takes you on a trip.
How long did Freeland last?
Forever in our hearts, but the first ride was only a year. Several more trips have followed. Boz Metzdorf, Steve Keys, Doug Rymerson, Jeff Schroeder, Dave Cushing and I will always be Freeland. This band was our introduction into making original music, which we’ve continued to make all of our lives. We all got together for a memorial concert in the early 2000’s and made our second album ‘Almost Home’ shortly after that. Fast-forward, we realized that 2022 would mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Headin’ Back’. We were all still active musically so the band got back together, Covid-style and made our swan song, the 19 track album ‘Ute Creek Eulogy’. Ute Creek, outside of Idaho Springs, Colorado is where we relocated in 1972 after ‘Headin’ Back’ was recorded. It includes two bonus tracks, ‘Kalah’ and ‘Ride With the Devil’ that weren’t included on ‘Headin’ Back,’ but would have been if there was more room on the record.
‘Ute Creek Eulogy’ will be released later this year and is a story unto itself. We as a band are eager to share with you and your readers when it comes out. It’s a doozy! Sadly, Doug Rymerson passed from cancer last November, right after finishing his parts. He kept saying, “I’m not done yet.” It was really tough mixing this record and listening to all of Doug’s fine guitar work, and his song ‘Morning Sunlight’. He’s sp missed. ‘Ute Creek Eulogy’ is an amazing album with the six of us sounding like we’ve always sounded, fifty years later!
What followed for you? Would you like to share some recollections from working on your debut solo album?
What followed for me has been a full life as a husband, dad, songwriter and recording artist. I’ve not veered from my original goals of writing, recording and performing my music with good friends. This is embedded in my DNA. In the late 70’s I convinced Mike Sullivan to hire me as an assistant engineer, giving me access to a first-class studio and my first solo album Expensive Fun. The title came as we were recording ‘Good Love,’ the first song. I said “This is fun, but it’s expensive fun.” Nothing has changed there! I’m currently working on ‘Even More Expensive Fun,’ which will be released next year, 44 years after the first one!
As a songwriter, what makes a good song in your opinion?
There are all kinds of songs, of course. Those that make you dance, think about good times and bad, those that reflect the best in us. I try to write songs that are honest, tell a story and are reflexions of what’s happening in my life.
Tell us about opening your own studio, Tommy’s Tracks in Nashville, Tennessee.
I’ve had my own home studio for nearly 40 years. It was first called Composers’ Workshop, then The Studio Guy and now Tommy’s Tracks for the last decade in Nashville. I call it that because I was introduced to producer Cowboy Jack Clement, who wrote a ton of hits, recorded the Million Dollar Quartet and was running buddies with Johnny Cash. His studio was originally called Jack’s Tracks, so I call mine Tommy’s Tracks. I make my records here and master records by other amazing artists. And like Cowboy Jack’s it’s got a pool. It’s a good life!
What can you say about ‘Cool Saturdays’?
Cool Saturdays was my first national release. Al Bergamo, who was running K-Tel’s frontline labels, took a chance on my instrumentals. What I delivered was an album that included a half dozen vocal tracks. The record garnered positive reviews and extensive Adult Alternative airplay in many markets. I thought that finally I had arrived at the starting line, and even had a national booking agency, but that wasn’t to be my path. I was offered the opportunity to start a college audio recording program, a career that included health benefits for my family and a retirement package. I chose correctly, as the label shut down a couple years later, and a dozen artists lost our record deals.
What currently occupies your life? Would love it if you could tell us about some of the recent projects.
More than 30 of my recordings can be found at tommywiggins.com. It’s like an old school record store where you can listen to every song for free. I welcome everyone to browse away and let me know what you dig the most. I’m writing, recording and adding new albums and singles all the time under Tommy Wiggins, Wiggy & the Wild Ones, dubSavant, Los Hombres Del Norte (with Steve and Dave from Freeland), the Wild Wiggins, Skeeter’s Lounge and other names that suit the music. Both Freeland albums are there as well, and ‘Ute Creek Eulogy’ will be there when it’s released.
I’m really proud of my latest full-length record ‘When My Brain Goes On Vacation’. I call it my Nashville album because I wrote all the songs here and recorded it with a cast of my Nashville posse of players and singers. The title song, ‘You Can’t Tell Me What to Do, ‘Cuz I’m 72,’ ‘Rockin’ Them Yoga Pants’ and ‘Big Tent Freedom’ are standouts. I think it’s my best work to date. Until the next one.
Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.
I’m the luckiest guy I know. Along with a life of writing and recording, I’ve had the good fortune to start and direct two college recording programs that have taught thousands of musicians how to record their own music. I’ve also hosted over four hundred cable music shows that have earned five Emmys. I still wake up every morning with a song in my head. A quote from my newest song says it all… “I’ll be rockin’ ‘till the wheels fall off.”
Klemen Breznikar
Headline photo: Mushroom playing on Labor Day weekend (1969) | Photo by Tom Nelson
Tommy Wiggins Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / YouTube
