The 1970 album Bein’ Free was transitional for Jerry Jeff Walker. He'd just left the confines of the Greenwich Village folk scene but hadn't yet settled in the Austin milieu that would become his permanent home. The house band at Criteria Sound Studios in Miami was The Dixie Flyers, a tight-knit unit led by Memphis pianist Jim Dickinson. The Flyers gave Walker the tight yet soulful sound that expanded his playing and ushered him toward his Texas years. The album contains the last of Walker’s poignant pure folk songs, including “Stoney,” “Some Go Home,” and “But for the Time.” But he really started to morph with the chugging gospel rhythms of “Nobody’s” and “A Secret.” Sammy Creason’s thickset drumming was the perfect accompaniment for Walker, who was attracted to the feel of a rock ‘n’ roll jug band. Bein’ Free has superb oddities like “Please Let Me Be,” but it's most notable for “I’m Gonna Tell on You,” “Where Is the D.A.R. When You Really Need Him,” and “Vince Triple-O Martin”: early examples of the scruffy, wayward country music that would soon become Walker’s signature.