Free  – Collins and Streiss (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Obviously more by accident than design but Collins and Streiss’s sound owes something to their initials and all that implies. If they became a trio by incorporating someone whose surname began with an N then the CS&N moniker would be highly appropriate. Appropriate because their blend of rich harmonies and rootys, country rock, west coast cool and gratuitous sax is not a million miles away from that famous trio.

And by the time they put their foot on the gas at about the half way point, they drive the song through the same territory that Tom Petty was happy to call his musical stamping ground. But for all the achievements of such icons, they can’t take all the credit, people have been making slick, sumptuous and sassy rock since the year dot, or at least since the year microdot…if you know what I mean, and they have been making it ever since, though not always as well as this. So Collins and Streiss sit at the cutting edge of a timeless sound, it evokes the past and reminds us of former glories but it also speaks to the here and now and suggests that the future is in safe hands too. Lovely!