Freedom Quest: The Hidden 1970s Band at the heart of Debora Masterson's debut Novel. Ep: 35

This one's different. No living room discovery session, no cold open with Gary going in blind. This episode starts with an email — one of the best pitch emails JR has ever received — and ends with a love story that spans 50 years, a religious cult in Hawaii, and a box of two-inch master tapes that almost didn't survive long enough to be heard.The band is Freedom Quest. The album is Freedom Quest, streaming now on Spotify under Craig Ingraham's name. It was recorded in San Diego and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s by a group that included a 17-year-old David Benoit on piano — yes, that David Benoit — and broke up when the leader got busted for cannabis by a roadie working for the feds, right as they were about to shop the record to labels. Seven songs. Never released. The tapes sat in a box for decades. The author is Debora Masterson. She was in that band. She is the person in the orange blouse on the left side of the album photo. She met Craig Ingraham when she was 15 and he was 18, and the two of them — fictionalized as Michael and Grace — are the love story at the center of her debut novel Freedom Quest: A Love Story, releasing April 21st, 2026. Pre-order it now on Amazon.In part one, JR plays Gary three songs from the Freedom Quest album cold while Gary does real-time forensic analysis of whether the recording is actually from the 70s. His verdict: the instrumentation, the frequency response, the truncated highs, the raw guitar tones, the piano-lessons-since-age-six piano solo — all of it tracks. The only thing that throws him is the mix, which is too "rainbow" (his word) for the era. Debora later confirms the tapes were digitized by Sound City Studios in Los Angeles — the one from the Dave Grohl documentary — directly off the two-inch masters.In part two, Debora joins live to explain everything: who was in the band, why Craig was going by "Skeeter," what happened the night he got arrested, how a cult in Hawaii nearly destroyed him, why he was afraid of success even though everyone around him expected him to be a star, how she ended up inheriting hundreds of tapes she hasn't fully heard yet, and why she's currently recording the audiobook of the novel herself while getting over a cold. Freedom Quest: A Love Story releases April 21st. Book signing events in San Diego (April 25th at Folk Arts Rare Records), Los Angeles (May 2nd at The Last Bookstore in Studio City), and Chicago.Watch on YouTube to see album art, Spotify pages, and book cover visuals as the episode unfolds.🔗 Links► Freedom Quest: A Love Story by Debora Masterson — pre-order now on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Debora-Masterson-ebook/dp/B0GQ573WV4► Debora Masterson: https://www.deboramasterson.com► Freedom Quest album on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0DTxcXZdSaAIlFzbFLnJdf?si=NbVed--CT16-TgswY8E6Ow► Every band we've ever featured: https://bynhopod.com► Our complete Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zT8HHOprlVgO78X9rjcQB?si=c89844d0fb184d0f► Email us: [email protected]► Support the show & grab merch: https://bynhopod.com (click "Support")0:00 - The Email That Started This1:50 - The Pitch5:53 - What Are We Featuring?7:00 - The Spotify Page9:07 - First Impressions13:15 - "My Time Has Come"18:06 - Gary's Analysis27:50 - "Calling You My Brother"32:53 - "If They Took All My Songs Away"39:40 - Tapes, Sound City & Craig Ingram44:30 - PART 2: Deborah Joins55:00 - The Book and Release Date59:00 - Meeting Craig1:03:37 - What Happened to the Band1:06:54 - David Benoit1:11:30 - The Cult Story1:17:45 - Digitizing the Tapes1:21:00 - The Box of Unheard Music1:25:00 - Book Signings1:28:10 - Audiobook Plans1:37:00 - Wrapping Up1:41:07 - Outro