The Spree of 83

Today I am switching gears and talking about The Spree of 83*, a biography of sorts by co-authors Freddy and Catherine Powers and Jake Brown.

book cover for "The Spree of 83"

I know, I know. You’re thinking, “what are you doing? You’re supposed to be talking about something sci-fi or fantasy or thriller or mystery or anything other than biographies!” Not today, my friends! Today I take my own advice from my last post: I am stepping outside my box and reading something different. Today is a pretty big deal for Americans (I *know* I’m not the only one who watched a parade this morning and got the kiddos some sparklers to play with), so it seems fitting that today I do something new and different. The Spree of 83 is a book that details the life of Freddy Powers, a multi-award winning country singer and songwriter. Besides, I live in Texas: country music is just as important as BBQ.

The Spree of 83 is an interesting book. If you haven’t heard of Freddy Powers, have you ever heard of Merle Haggard? Or maybe Willie Nelson? Freddy Powers was the yin to their yang. Freddy was a prolific songwriter. He was a patriot and served in the Marines. He was a prankster as a child and a joker as an adult. Freddy was, according to Willie Nelson, one of the “best rhythm guitar players”. He didn’t need to be the headliner but he loved to be on stage. He won a number of awards for songwriting, is in the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, and holds Lifetime Achievement Awards from several music organizations.

If you’re wondering about the title – I definitely was – it is explained in the book better than I can describe. On page 53-54, Merle Haggard says, “The Spree of 83, we called it that, had actually started out in 1979, and went on that way for five or six years I guess. The Great Escape is what it was really.” Basically, Freddy and Merle were best friends, both going through a divorce at the time, and they decided Lake Shasta was the perfect place to play music, have parties, and generally love life. Oh, and houseboats – they really loved their houseboats. Per Freddy on page 64, “By 1983, Merle and I were living on the boats full-time, writing and partying. We called it ‘The Spree of 83’ . . . It seemed like we were living every day as if it were our last, which meant living for the moment.”

This book is not so much “written” as it is “compiled”. Imagine, if you will, you sat down at a table with your grandfather and a few of his best friends – friends that he’s known for decades – put a tape recorder in the middle of the table, and just sat back and let them reminisce. Then, when they were done talking, you sat down, cut their conversation into snippets, and arranged it all so that flowed in chronological order. And then, maybe, you remember you’ve taped other conversations over the last ten years. So you listen to those and pull snippets to insert into the new conversations. I am guessing that the end result would feel very . . . piecey. Like a patchwork quilt: you look at it from 10 feet away and it looks like a beautiful, cohesive pattern of fabric; then you look at it from 10 inches and you can see every stitch and maybe a few gaps between fabric pieces. That’s how this book feels.

Freddy’s wife, Catherine, is a major player in this book. She gives detail about his family and his childhood. Catherine tells a condensed story of their lives together, and almost exclusively details the last years of Freddy’s life. She had wonderful insights to his personality and what made him tick. Freddy fought a long battle with Parkinson’s and her support is evident and obvious in this book. Her strength and single-minded focus for Freddy’s well-being is admirable.

This is not the smoothest book. It definitely felt authentic – you know that what you’re reading was not prettied up by a professional author or embellished for entertainment value. Some parts felt slow; some parts felt too fast. But it’s Freddy’s story, and he and his loved ones are telling it as they experienced it. I read an ARC, so there were the expected mistakes – some grammar problems, editing errors, some inconsistencies with names, duplicate text, and so on. It was maybe more mistakes than other ARCs I’ve seen, but I’m going to chalk some of it to the fact that Freddy and Catherine wrote a majority of the book and they aren’t professional writers.

It was an interesting book. I don’t read very many biographies, and, while it was Freddy’s story, I enjoyed hearing the side stories and perspectives of his musician friends. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard have a number of quotes and tidbits. John Rich (of country duo Big & Rich) shows up at the end. Freddy’s sister reminded me of my grandmother with the phrases and words she used to describe things. We hear songs on the radio every day, but we don’t always hear the back story about who wrote it. The Spree of 83 gives all those behind-the-scenes details and shows us a side we don’t always see in the entertainment industry. And, I’ll be honest: I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

Overall: 7/10

*I received an advance copy of The Spree of 83 from the publisher, Waldorf Publishing, in exchange for my honest review.

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