Jake Speed and The Freddies at Wednesdays in the Woods

Jake Speed and The Freddies

Jake Speed & The Freddies play a mix of traditional & original folk, country blues, and ragtime tunes that muse on Cincinnati’s unique past & present. Known as the Woody Guthrie of Cincinnati, Jake Speed uses a traditional folksy delivery to compose timely and timeless songs that tell great stories with a bit of a lyrical edge. The band, built out of guitar, mandolin, fiddle, tenor guitar and upright bass (with hints of harmonica, kazoo, and washboard), has been hailed by CityBeat magazine as a “…a fixture of Cincinnati’s traditional Folk scene” since releasing its first of five albums, Queen City Rag, in 2002. Speed’s tongue-in-cheek stories and crowd-engaging antics (such as watering can solos, sing-alongs, and dance moves) keep audiences thoroughly entertained. Just two years after hitting the Cincinnati scene, the band won the 2002 Cincinnati Entertainment Award (Cincinnati’s equivalent of The Grammy Awards) for Artist of the Year. The band is now a five-time winner of the CEA for Best Folk Musicians (2001-2004; 2008). Jake Speed is a two-time winner of the CEA for Best Songwriter (2002, 2006). Cincinnati Magazine’s 2007 “Best of Cincinnati” edition named the band as one of the Top 40 Best Things About Cincinnati. In 2004, the readers of CityBeat Magazine voted them Best Local Musicians.