The foreward to the Shindig! article, THE FREE DESIGN With their clean-cut image, easy-on-the-ears sunshine pp and mainstream TV appeal, it's no wonder THE FREE DESIGN were misinterpreted as just another group of singing siblings in a late '60s marketplace overcrowded with such entities. But beneath their wholesome exterior lurked a supremely talented and fiercely experimental songwriter/arranger in Chris Dedrick, whose meticulous deployment of those four voices draws few, if any, parallels to this day. Over seven albums that filtered jazz and pop influences - coloured by the happenin' love generation that surrounded them - they veered from the middle of the road to the edges of the avant-garde, stopping off at most points in between. Of their era, but never defined or dated by it. It wasn't until the group's work was rediscovered by the likes of Stereolab, The High Llamas, Super Furry Animals and Belle & Sebastian in the '90s that their star began to ascend as an entire new generation of curious audiophiles and '60s pop freaks fell under The Free Design's spell. Shindig! bows down as RACHEL LICHTMAN gets to the heart of the band with singer Sandra Dedrick. "Music was a life saver for the harmony of our family" On Wednesday, October 31, 2012 2:26:29 PM UTC, Eidem wrote:
> Wow, never heard of them or heard the song before. Wasn't a hit in > Minnesota. >
