Friday, March 12, 2010
Salem songbird works on a follow-up
Courtesy of Freda Fry
Freda Fry (left), Tom Ohmsen, Randy Smith, Kevin Largen and Kerry Addington Morgiewicz are working on a new CD.
Emily Paine Carter is columnist So Salem. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.
Emily Paine Carter
Recent columns from Salem, Glenvar and western Roanoke County
Freda Fry and her merry band are working on a new CD.
It will cover the blues, "Civil War through the 1980s," she e-mailed.
"I'm doing the '40s blues as a 21st-century woman would sing 'em. 'A man's gonna sweet talk and give you the glad eye but he'll teach you to sing the blues in the night.' I like variety, so folks will be able to sing along with me and, hopefully, be uplifted at the end."
Upbeat, she seems to glow. She laughs easily. And chat with her and you'll likely hear her sing lyrics fitting the topic: sweetly she puts the "verse" into "conversation."
Freda wrote she is happy to be able to turn her reclusive life "(due to my chemical sensitivities) into a way to do what I love to do most in the world: SING. The Lord has indeed been good to me in allowing me to keep my voice and in helping me to reach out to others, many of whom are in much tougher situations."
Freda once joked that if her first CD, "It's About Time," sold a hundred, she'd get a gold record. It's well beyond, yet sales aren't lucrative.
Hey, she wasn't in it for money anyhow (Sept. 4, 2009 column). Rather, she treasures the enthused responses from listeners "all across the country, Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Iceland, ships at sea, etc. ... The comments I have received are worth a million."
In addition to www.cdbaby.com, www.itunes.com and Brooks-Byrd Pharmacy, Barnes & Noble at Valley View now offers it -- and even plays the songs in the store, she said.
She says she'll "keep it with Cameron [Brooks] at Brooks-Byrd. And people can still get it from MOI. After all, THIS IS SALEM!!!!"
Accompanying a group photo was "updated" praise of her talented band-mates. (She also loves the beautiful snow-capped mountain background.) Not pictured are Les Switzer, "who played on almost every song," and Allie Longworth.
Wrote Freda, "Kerry [Addington Morgiewicz] (who teaches music at Hollins) is directing the spring musical there, which is indeed noteworthy.
"Tom Ohmsen wrote the music for the folk opera 'Miss Lucy' which will debut in May, I think. What an accomplishment!"
She added that "versatile musician" Kevin Largen "will be playing bass, guitar, electric guitar and harmonica as well as harmonizing..."
And were reports of her drummer / retired Salem City Manager Randy Smith playing gigs with another band true? Yes, indeed -- and Kevin is also in that band. Randy's wife, Vickie Smith, helpfully answered via e-mail: "Yes, Randy is the drummer in Misspent Youth. They have played at the Moose Club, Zak's, All Sports Cafe, at private parties, and at Pomegranate in Troutville. ... Other members of the band are guitarist and vocalist Kevin Largen of Roanoke ... and keyboard player Willie Bush of Salem." Look for Misspent Youth's Web site on Facebook.
"They're GOOD!" stressed Freda.
And peacefully merging the sacred and secular -- just as she does in her music -- Freda wrote of being blessed by having such "multi-talented musicians on board. 'Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.' I asked and received, sought and found, and 'The Beat Goes On.'"
