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Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu, Rabbit

Self-titled/Eponymous release

After Free split up in the early fall of 1971, bassist, Andy Fraser formed a project called Toby, while lead singer, Paul Rodgers, got involved with a band of his own in Peace. With Simon Kirke and Paul Kossoff being left, the two decided to form a project of their own, bringing in  Japanese native(and future Faces member) Tetsu Yamauchi on bass and a young, budding keyboard player from Texas known as John "Rabbit" Bundrick. The resulting Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit release remains an interesting footnote within the Free lifeline as this band of musicians would hook up again in the third and final incarnation of Free itself with the Heartbreaker release; but the music contained herein reveals an accomplished and solid effort on the parts of these fine players. Bundrick provides over half of the record's material, opening with Blue Grass and featuring him on vocals, this number is driven by Kossoff's winding, sharp guitar tone, Kirke's solid, powerful and steady beats along with Tetsu's fine bass accompaniment. Sammy's Alright follows and is a rather soulful number with nice vocal harmonies included, as drummer, Simon Kirke also reveals some solid singing to compliment Rabbit's lead vocals . Which leads to the next number, Anna; a soft track of sorts sung by Simon it reveals a nice heartfelt tune, driven by Bundrick's tasteful piano lines. Just for the Box is an instrumental credited to Kossoff and shows off a great groove realized by the quartet, turning in a solid "jam" performance. Hold On follows and is a hidden gem within this set, written by Kirke and Koss and although it starts out a bit slow, it builds itself rather organically into its wonderful coda containing some of Paul's best playing so far, aided well with Rabbit's purposeful piano lines.

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Fool's Life is another winner on here, continuing much of the same flavor as the previous Hold On, instrumentally dominated by Koss and Rabbit. Yellow House features a lap steel played by respected session musician B.J. Cole sitting in, and is similar in tone to the previous, Sammy's Alright, again tapping into the soulful overtones of Free's previous outputs and you'd swear Paul Rodgers is somewhere in the mix here providing his innumerable vocals to this solid number!  Dying Fire is another entry from Simon Kirke and what it may lack in Simon's vocal is more than made up for by Paul's searing guitar performance, simply beautiful. Rabbit's, I'm on the Run is another track that features B.J. Cole on lap steel and in some ways, this song features both a bit of Bad Company in its chorus, while echoing some elements of Free in its verses; Bundrick builds this number with his organ and electric piano passages, and the vocal harmonies help it glide along accordingly. Closing with Colours, Kossoff takes the lead vocal on a number that has potential to be a solid track, had it not been for Paul's vocal deficiencies throughout its duration. It seems a little ragged in its overall arrangement and lacks a bit of distinction from the other numbers included here, despite, once again, Koss' searing guitar work, nevertheless.

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If you're a devout fan of Free, chances are you already own this. I feel its certainly worthwhile within the 70's genre of British rock and is a forgotten piece that unearths some great talents on display here. Rabbit would later become associated with the Who, Tetsu would join the Faces, Simon would go onto join Bad Company and Kossoff made a great solo record in Back Street Crawler, would form a band of the same name, but unfortunately would die a few years after in 1976. Within this brief window of time, Kossoff, Kirke, Testu and Rabbit is the result of 4 important musicians and a nice document of rock history to own. Very solid and worthwhile.

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Rating Grade- B+

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