Simple Songs of Freedom - The Tim Hardin Collection

iTunes Review

In the mid-1960s Tim Hardin penned and recorded two albums of singular, stunning power Tim Hardin 1 and Tim Hardin 2 containing “If I Were A Carpenter” and “Reason to Believe” for starters. From there, his songwriting muse often abandoned him and what leaked out while often powerful and personal simply couldn’t match the universal power of his earliest work. Haunted by this and a lifelong struggle with drug and alcohol consumption, Hardin struggled for the rest of his career until he overdosed on heroin on December 29, 1980 in Los Angeles. However, the man was always a first-rate singer, and his covers of Bobby Darin’s “Simple Song of Freedom” (Darin had a hit with Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter”), Jesse Winchester’s “Yankee Lady,” and Randy Newman’s “I’ll Be Home” bear witness to Hardin’s unique ability to let a word trail off in the air. This collection includes the strongest material from Hardin’s Columbia period in the late 1960s and early 1970s and includes several previously unreleased gems.