Are you ready to get Experienced, once again? 45 years ago, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played to the largest American audience of its career on the stage of the Atlanta Pop Festival, alongside other artists including The Allman Brothers Band, Mott the Hoople, Procol Harum, Rare Earth, and even a company of Hair! The second Atlanta International Pop Festival was a rock festival held in a soybean field adjacent to the Middle Georgia Racewayin Byron, Georgia, from July 3th–5th, 1970, although it did not finish until near dawn on the 6th.
The now-legendary performance of Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox on July 4th, 1970 will be chronicled this fall with a new documentary film and live album. Legacy Recordings previewed the upcoming release Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival earlier this year with the Record Store Day-exclusive vinyl single of “Purple Haze” b/w “Freedom.” On August 28, the rest of Freedom will arrive on 2 CDs or 2 vinyl LPs. The first 5,000 copies of the vinyl release will be individually numbered.
The 16-song live recording includes familiar Hendrix favorites like “Foxy Lady,” “Hey Joe,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” and of course, a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” befitting the July 4th date. Jimi Hendrix performed at around midnight on the 4th of July to the largest American audience of his career, presenting his unique rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to accompany the celebratory fireworks display. just two months before his death at age 27, the guitarist was one of more than 30 acts that played for an estimated 300,000-400,000 people at the Atlanta Pop Festival in Byron, Ga
Freedom will be accompanied this fall by the documentary Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church, set for airing on Showtime on September 4th. DVD/BD releases follow on October 30th with additional content not included in the television broadcast. This new film features interviews with Hendrix’s bandmates Cox and the late Mitchell as well as Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, Atlanta Pop organizer Alex Cooley and others.
Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival arrives on August 28th from Legacy Recordings and can be pre-ordered at the links below!
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival 1970 (Experience Hendrix/Legacy, 2015)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
CD/LP 1
1.Fire
2.Lover Man
3.Spanish Castle Magic
4.Red House
5.Room Full of Mirrors
6.Hear My Train A-Comin’
7.Message to Love
CD/LP 2
1.All Along the Watchtower
2.Freedom
3.Foxy Lady
4.Purple Haze
5.Hey Joe
6.Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
7.Stone Free
8.The Star-Spangled Banner
9.Straight Ahead
The Fat Angel Sings 