I’ve been a fan of Kid Rock since Devil Without A Cause. I loved the mix of rock and rap and the album was a fun mix of strippers, partying and in-your-face cockiness. Except for one song and that was “Only God Knows Why”, which showed that Rock could do more than just rap.

And with each new album (excluding The History of Rock since those were old songs he remade), Rock has done a little more singing and a lot less rapping. Now, he’s back with Born Free and there’s no rapping to be found. Well, none from Rock anyway. There is a guest appearance by T.I. in “Care”.

Kid Rock is talented and he usually makes it known that he believes this in his songs. I’ve always enjoyed when he sings on his albums and songs like “Picture”, “Cold And Empty”, “Midnight Train To Memphis” and “Blue Jeans And A Rosary” are some of my favorite tracks of his. But I was a little surprised to get all the way through this new album and find that it was full of only singing. I suppose I shouldn’t have been since he’s been moving towards this for years. I’ve probably seen him on CMT way more than MTV lately.

Rapping isn’t the only thing missing here. The cocky attitude and lyrics all about how he’s the greatest are gone. Oh yeah, and no parental advisory sticker. That’s not to say that the entire cd is without cursing, it’s just nowhere near the amount we’re used to. This album is 13 tracks (One song has two versions so really 12 new songs) that will surely be heard in a lot of bars. Especially bars that have country and southern rock played often.

Rock seems to do a lot for the military and visits soldiers, puts on shows, etc. So I wasn’t surprised that the first single was the title track “Born Free”. I think the song sounds great. This is a great country that may be going through a bit of a down time right now but we are free and we have a lot of things that others don’t.

There are a few guest appearances on this album. On “Care”, Rock teams up with Martina McBride and T.I. and even sings in a falsetto voice that we haven’t heard before. This sounds like an odd combination and, at first listen, it did sound odd but after listening again, they go together better than I thought. In the chorus, Rock and McBride sing “Cuz’ I can’t stop the war/Shelter homeless, feed the poor/I can’t walk on water/I can’t save your sons and daughters/Well I can’t change the world and make things fair/The least I could do is care”. Now maybe we’ll be seeing T.I. on CMT sometime soon too.

Bob Seger (on piano) and Sheryl Crow join Rock on “Collide”. Crow also sang on “Picture” years ago and they sound great together again. This is one of my favorite tracks from the album and I’m sure it will be a hit single. Zac Brown shows up on “Flyin High” and they also sound good together. This is definitely one you’ll be hearing on the jukebox somewhere.

The track that may get the most attention is “Times Like These”. It’s like a love song for his hometown of Detroit and he says that even though the city is going through a very hard time, he’s not leaving. It’s a beautiful song for a once great city that will hopefully rebound. Rock performed this song on the American Music Awards recently and it was awesome. I’ll put the video below.

The rest of the album is filled with some good old fashioned southern rock. And some people will say it’s just a country album. Whatever you want to call it, it’s worth listening to. It’s an older, more mature Kid Rock who seems more interested in trying to deal with the world’s problems and finding a way to relax with friends than with bragging about himself and singing about strippers. And while I’ll miss the brash mix of rock and rap from the past, this new version of Rock is going to do alright.