When you add a release for an artist ("add release" on artist page),
the artist is automatically selected as release artist.
But it is not automatically selected as track artist in tracklists,
which were imported from FreeDB, even for exactly the same artist name.
This can be (and is) very confusing for new users.

The automatic selection works with the track parser, so it should work with FreeDB imports, too.

http://forums.musicbrainz.org/viewtopic.php?id=5988