Darrin Kobetich's "Free"

The title of itinerant axe-slinger Darrin Kobetich's new album, Free, refers not to its price (it'll cost ya seven bucks), but to the state of mind he found himself in last year, unmoored from the straight job he held for almost three decades, but plying his trade around town and on the road, both solo and as a member of Boxcar Bandits (bluegrass/mountain music), Rageout Orchestra (experimental improv), and Chrome Mags (surf/spaghetti Western). It's his first album recorded in a studio (Fort Worth Sound) with a producer (Bart Rose), and it showcases all of his signature strengths -- flatpicking facility, percussive syncopation, chiming harmonics, and a flair for exotic scales -- in a frame as spacious as the wide open vistas Da Kobe has encountered on his travels. But don't take my word for it; check it out and spring for a download if you like what you hear. You don't have to be a millionaire to subsidize the arts.