Revisiting Christy Snow’s Epochal 2016 album, ‘Free To Be’

Living free to be who you are and feel out the world in any way chosen is an incredible freedom to have, as well as a notion to capture. It is also the message that is infused into some of Christy Snow’s music. 

Snow has long been a staple in Charlotte’s music scene, but also an activist and advocate for a number of causes, including LGBTQ+ inclusivity. As a singer/songwriter, speaker, writer and facilitator, Snow has a gift for empowering others through music, speaking and teaching. Her life-affirming lyrics serve as inspiration for others to live their best life and share their unique expression in the world while promoting authenticity and equality. 

Having gotten her start playing in small bars, coffeehouses and house concerts, Christy still thrives in intimate performance spaces, though you can now catch her playing with her newly formed band at larger venues like Evening Muse and The Rooster.

During the pandemic, Christy found a silver lining by joining forces with a number of fellow Charlotte artists to launch the Christy Snow Band. With Brenda Gambill and Gina Stewart of Doubting Thomas Band bringing violin, harmonica, bass, and harmonies; Kim Niption on electric guitar; and Rochelle Coatney on drums, Cajon, and congas, the all-woman rock accompaniment has added both an edge and lyrical softness to Snow’s music, as she now shares songwriting duties with Gambill and Stewart. 

For our 2024 Pride Guide however, we thought we’d revisit Snow’s epochal 2016 album, Free To Be, a collection of tracks that tinge with bits of alt-country and Americana accents in the sound, while conveying the need to break out to be the best self, however that ends up.

The first track of the album, “Live Free”, doesn’t hesitate in introducing Snow’s personal struggles to do just that, as a steady guitar and harmonica soundtrack accompanies Christy’s own battle to wrench her life’s path back into her own hands. 

“I’m tired of twisting in the wind to see which way its gonna blow me now/ I just won’t live like that again/ Gonna choose a different path some way somehow…” 

The messaging is as easy-going as the music is, light-hearted and easy to complement the artist’s vocals, setting the tone for much of the album to come.

There are a few fun surprises that lay in wait, however, like the swing and quickened pace of “Do Things For You,” a danceable love tune that exclaims the desire to make anything happen for that special someone. 

The piano takes over much of the instrumental backing, which, alongside the timing of the drums, sets pace to the hops of the track, installing a sense of fun not only in the music but in Snow herself.

The tracklist takes its share of sultry turns with tracks like “Heat” and “Big Daddy,” hitting different speeds but pushing the same type of winking narrative in getting the attention of that special someone. 

While not always on a completely singular message, one of the album’s greatest strengths lies in establishing that one doesn’t have to be stuck in one place — whether that’s mentally or spiritually. 

“Map Is Not The Territory” is especially effective in expressing that, coming off as partly advice to listeners tuning in and, on the greater end, a life lesson about the true meanings of freedom according to Snow. 

The explanations within the lyrics go down easy as the pace evens back out alongside keys and harmonica, with plenty of guitar tings to pace out the punches of the vocals, relaxing the track a bit. 

Free To Be is powerful not only in the act of preaching a message of self-discovery and control, but the freedom to find any of what that would mean for the listeners that have the good fortune in discovering the album. 

Snow takes care to not only talk the talk, but walk in the words by way of using herself as a catalyst in capturing the feelings put on by the music. 

It is clear that none of what the tracks are about, in the notions displayed, came easy to the artist, taking much of a lifetime for her to find, which is why it’s so worth revisiting today. 

I really appreciate and can take many messages from any of the 11 tracks on the record, but the one I think will stick most with listeners is how one may discover individual freedom for themselves, and how to take life up on all that it has to offer.