Album Notes

Jake Speed & the Freddies, Cincinnati's Best Folk Band (CityBeat's CEA winner '01-'04), present the release of their Christmas album, Losantaville.

Snowballing off The Freddies' 2004 release, Huzzah! (Voted one of WNKU's 89 Best Albums of 2004, and Selected as one of the Top 25 Albums of 2004 by CityBeat), Jake Speed and the boys have dashed into the Christmas Spirit with Losantaville. The album's name (a play on Losantiville, the city of Cincinnati's original name) jingle-jangles with images of top-of-the-steps Christmas Day excitement. This collection of 6 original Freddies Christmas tunes and 4 Santa-suited carols sleds into stores this Thanksgiving. The Freddies prance around the American Roots sound with this album, sounding Jugbandy on "Christmas in Rabbit Hash," Ragtimey on "Queen City Christmas," Bluegrassy on "Santa Loves Bluegrass," and Bluesy on "Rudolf."

Losantaville is ornamented with a tree full of stars, including local Bluegrass legends, Ed Cunningham & Jeff Roberts, local singer/songwriter Kim Taylor, and cellist Damon Gray. The gifts of these musicians make Losantaville a certain stocking stuffer (preferably Red Stockings). The Freddies' renditions of Christmas classics like "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Up on the Housetop" blow back memories of Christmas Past, while tunes like "Queen City Christmas" & "I Can't Wait for Christmas Day" create a Freddies Christmas Future. As the album clearly gallops with glee, Speed has composed two solemn numbers, "A Soldier's Christmas Lament" & "Christmas Star" that peacefully plea for Christmas miracles.