Michael Freeman’s work as producer or engineer has appeared on 60 blues titles over three-plus decades. As a teenager in London in the 1960s, Freeman was listening when British DJs were introducing American blues and R&B to British audiences. He first came to the U.S. in 1973 to manage artists, and emigrated here by the decade’s end. His recording career began in the suburbs of Chicago at Hedden West Studios. Freeman has produced 16 first-class blues records including Blind Pig releases by Deborah Coleman, Eddy Clearwater, and Studebaker John. He has also been at the controls for Mississippi Heat and Sharrie Williams. He was co-producer of the Grammy-nominated Pinetop Perkins & Friends album for Telarc in 2009 and Mississippi Heat’s Let’s Live It Up on Delmark in 2010. Most recently, he produced Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith’s Joined at the Hip on Telarc. As engineer, he worked on Alligator’s Vu Du Menz for Corey Harris and Henry Butler, John Primer’s The Real Deal, Bo Diddley’s 40th-anniversary album A Man Amongst Men, and many others.
