Jake Speed & The Freddies

Speed & Freddies faithful to their roots

C.E. HANIFIN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The new Jake Speed & the Freddies record, "Huzzah!," weaves modern tales of urban life into the timeless sounds of traditional roots music.

A lament about the proliferation of chain drugstores bounds along on a jaunty ragtime beat; a fiddle strikes an aching poignancy on a Sept.11-inspired love song.

Speed, 26, and his band of Freddies - banjo player Kentucky Graham, upright bass player Chris Werner and mandolin player Justin Todhunter - will celebrate the record's release Saturday with a show at, appropriately enough, Cincinnati's oldest continuously operating tavern, Arnold's Bar & Grill.

While many of his peers worship indie rock heroes such as Guided by Voices' Robert Pollard (who happened to be Speed's fourth-grade health teacher), Speed looks up to Woody Guthrie and local bluegrass heroes Katie Laur and Ed Cunningham. The two Cincinnati-area favorites both appear on "Huzzah!," and Laur, along with several auxiliary Freddies, will perform at the release show.

The new album, which is the third Jake Speed & the Freddies release, presents an upbeat and often tongue-in-cheek take on tough times, Speed says, as Guthrie and other American troubadours have done.

"The thing I always liked about the old-time style is that it's real accessible," he says. "While I love musicians who push the limit and create new genres, to root yourself in something that people are comfortable with and then slip in your contemporary lyrics, it's not so daunting to accept," he says.

Speed, who grew up in Dayton and now lives in Clifton, says he has always been fascinated with Cincinnati's history; the city's colorful legacy inspires many of his songs. The tracks on "Huzzah!" are liberally laced with references to Senator Street and Clifton Heights, the 2001 riots and, of course, Speed's beloved Ohio River. (He's the organizer of the annual Rivertown Breakdown, a roots music festival that raises funds to help clean up the waterway).

In keeping with the spirit of their new Queen City-flavored album, Speed and the Freddies ran down their favorite Cincinnati sounds.

Speed: "When I used to live in Clifton Heights, on Stratford Street, I could hear the squeaking of the train yard, the one right where the Union Terminal is. Every night I'd go to sleep and I could hear the little squeaking."

Todhunter: "There's just something about being at a Reds game, at the end of a game or the end of a home run, when everybody's going nuts. That's just a good sound."

Graham: "If you're coming home to Cincinnati after a long trip south of here, and you cross the Suspension Bridge with your windows down, the tires kind of hum. It's a welcome back to Cincinnati."

Werner: "The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars, when all four sing a song like 'John Deere Tractor.' "

- Cincinnati ENQUIRER

Jake Speed: Urban troubadour

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By Rick Bird
Post staff reporter

The pitfall of the social satirist is you might be taken literally.
Take, for example Jake Speed, a University of Cincinnati grad, Clifton resident and Glen Este High School English teacher, who also happens to be one of the slyest and wittiest of the area's troubadours.

On his new CD, "Huzzah!," Speed sings his "Leaving Cincinnati" a biting tune about white flight and social responsibility he wrote after the 2001 riots. It has such lyrics as, "Had a downtown job paid a whole bunch/ But ever since the riots I'm scared to walk to lunch/ Fountain Square's fun, Union Terminal too, but now the strip malls will have to do." The catchy sing-a-long chorus says "I'm leaving Cincinnati, leaving Cincinnati, 'cause I'm scared of downtown."

Speed said he once sang the song at a "dive bar deep in Kentucky." He said he was a little surprised when patrons started cheering the chorus. "They thought I was for real. They were going, 'Yeah, now you are talking.' It was 'Pull out your Hank William's numbers and hope you make it through the night.'"

Speed's new CD is full of such songs that have made him a social protest favorite around town the last few years writing clever satirical pieces often about the local scene. Speed, a fervent disciple in the Woody Guthrie troubadour tradition, couches his social satire in happy-go-lucky, old-timey music. His band, the Freddies, flashes some fine bluegrass, hard country and traditional folk strains. Like Guthrie, Speed's feel-good delivery is in contrast to the often-tough images and satire he presents.

"My whole spin is to get my point across with humor," Speed said. "I always try to make it some preposterous situation. It just seems like folk music is the tradition these kind of songs have come out of."

Speed sings of a mythical First Street where the city's riverfront is vibrant with a thriving diversity of people of all races and incomes. He says the song was inspired by that classic picture of the Cincinnati riverfront in the 19th century, one can see blown up at the main library, full of riverboats and bustling shore. Speed wonders how that gave way to a sterile riverfront of stadiums and proposed condos. So, he wrote "First Street Fell' (Into the Ohio)."

"You hear these stories about Cincinnati being the Paris of the West during the whole riverboat era. I just imagined this mythological First Street where all the good things happened. It's just my backward way of using history to make fun of today."

Speed has a number of tough songs inspired by the riots -- such as "Hard Times At My Door," and "Poor Johnny," a tragic tale of a teen caught in urban violence where Speed is joined by bluegrass singer Katie Laur. But he sings of the vibrancy of the streets, too, such has his "Street Vibes Rag," a salute to the street paper put out by a homeless coalition.

Speed has plenty of wistful non-satirical tunes, such as the opening track "Marvelous You," as happy and pretty a love ditty as you'll ever hear. His delightful "Volvo Girl" is a tribute to the durable car that his wife drives in which he breaks out in song spelling V-O-L-V-O. "I have this dream of it being my own YMCA theme song," Speed says with a laugh.

Speed flashes his best social satire on the "Talkin F-Word blues," his own Alice's Restaurant-inspired opus about going into a redneck bar at the height of the Iraqi invasion and ordering French vanilla coffee, French dressing, French fries, French bread, French toast and playing "Lady Marmalade" on the juke box. Mimicking Arlo's littering bust, Speed is arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist.

Speed knows political satire can sometimes alienate fans, which can surprise the easygoing Speed. After playing at a "Bands against Bush" benefit this fall, he caught his first fan backlash.

"I did get my first negative feedback when someone said, 'I used to like you. Now I've thrown your CDs away.' I guess it comes with the territory when you are trying to put out a message."

But Speed would like fans also to take a message of whimsy from the album as summed up by the title, "Huzzah!" inspired by the antique word for hurrah. With his nostalgic Guthrie inspiration, Speed is all about capturing the perceived good will of lost times.

"Huzzah is a lost word. But I'm trying to get everyone to use it. It's funny, but catchy. I say it at my shows and in my classroom. Now my students say 'huzzah' all the time when they do something smart. It's just simple and all about having a good time."





Publication Date: 11-18-2004 - Cincinnati Post

JAKE SPEED -- THE CINCINNATI LEGENDS OF JEREMIAH SCHMIDT
Jake Speed is a fixture of Cincinnati's traditional Folk scene, as evidenced by a shelf heavy with awards for him and his group of Country/Bluegrass stompers, The Freddies. His latest undertaking is an ambitious collection of stories about the famous figures and folklore making up the Queen City's history. Funded by an Individual Artist Grant from the City of Cincinnati, the chronicle was inspired by Speed's discovery of a box in the basement of his Stratford Street apartment. The mysterious metal chest held postcards, photos and a journal belonging to Jeremiah Schmidt, a turn-of-the-century Cincinnatian who wrote detailed accounts of local legends and current events. Speed has carefully morphed the writings into colorful narratives in his own boisterous style. The subjects range from ghost stories ("Ghost of Henry Thomas Hunt" and "Witch in the Old Mill Creek") to Cincinnati as a haven for runaway slaves ("Cruel, Cruel World" and "Maggie Don't You Weep"). Speed matches each of his widely ranging subjects with just the right mood, whether it's celebratory ("Huzzah for the Red Stockings") or somber ("Railroad Penny"). Many of the songs are performed solo on guitar or banjo by Speed, accompanying himself with his usual harmonica or kazoo. Others include backup vocals and guest performances by Freddies and others on the upright bass, mandolin and dobro. Either way, the sound is traditional and timeless -- by necessity. The combination of Speed's fanciful and clever language, Dust Bowl delivery and the down-home instrumentation allows the listener to absorb instantly the sepia-toned eraa that is the setting for these tales. The artwork and CD booklet reinforce the archaic feel of the disc, which will soon seem like your own happened-upon treasure. (freddiesmusic.com) -- EZRA WALLER

- City Beat