Background
Don Freed was born in New Westminster, British Columbia and raised in Saskatoon.
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Don Freed
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Freed, who is of Métis descent, began his musical career in 1966. The Manitoba, His World, His Music. He was subsequently signed by Capitol and recorded an album for them in 1972, which was never released.
Freed went on to record a number of albums in the early 1980s which were regionally popular in Western Canada including Office in All Directions and Pith and Pathos.
Many of Freed"s songs about prairie life have been incorporated into high school curricula throughout Saskatchewan. Among performers who have collaborated with Freed on his recordings have been Colin James (who made some of his earliest recordings with Freed), Jane Siberry and actress Linda Griffiths.
He also collaborated with Joni Mitchell on her album Taming the Tiger, co-writing the song "Crazy Cries of Love". Mitchell and Freed were romantically linked in the mid-1990s.
Beginning in the early 1990s, Freed began to shift his musical focus from that of being a solo performer to being a promoter of Métis and First Nations culture, particularly involving children.
His work in teaching songwriting to children in northern Saskatchewan was covered nationally by Canadian Broadcasting Company Newsworld and even earned an article in the American Billboard magazine. Several albums have been released of Freed"s collaborations with children, as well as an album of songs called Mystery Boyz created in collaboration with young offenders incarcerated at the North Battleford Youth Centre in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. In 1999, Freed co-wrote Sasquatch Exterminator, a book (with accompanying Civil Defense) aimed at teaching Aboriginal language to children.
lieutenant was produced in conjunction with the Gabriel Dumont Institute.
In recent years, Freed has brought his songwriting workshops to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and to venues throughout the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Freed"s most recent Civil Defense release is 2005"s The Valley of Green and Blue, which celebrates his Métis heritage.
