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For the record, this is our Frederick Productions MySpace profile, but it all begins with Jeffrey Frederick. He's no longer with us in person, but his music remains as alive as ever. Jeffrey (1950 - 1997) was charismatic, charming and had the sexiest grin you ever laid eyes on, usually with a Camel straight, a 'hump' to him, hanging out of the corner of his mouth. When he climbed on stage and started to sing you just had to dance, his music penetrated the soul. Jeffrey oozed talent. To quote Dave Reisch, "Jeff could take something as mundane as a pencil and make a song out of it." Jeff's middle name could have been humour, but it wasn't, he was Jeffrey Sutton Frederick and according to him he could do "any f........ thing he wanted" and he did! And that included sometimes performing in a tutu and cowboy boots, or decorating the stage with a flock of hand-carved pink flamingos.
After many years creating musical havoc in Vermont, Jeffrey moved to Portland, Oregon in '75 and started his best-known band, the Clamtones. The band in hand was the Clamtones when Jeff was the frontman and the Holy Modal Rounders when Steve Weber was frontman... these "two bands in one" often shared the same stage. They soon became "the best f........ bar band in America" as one reviewer put it and ruled the Portland music scene for years.
In '76 they took off on a 9,000 mile tour of the perimeter of the States, which included such memorable moments as Jeff & Lonesome Wayne being arrested in Texas for their antics, and getting run out of Alabama for making fun of Fundamentalism in "Let Me Down".
For stories of their road trip and more about Jeff, check out our web site and also go to the Freak Mountain Rambler's web site and read Dave Reisch's "A Piece of Work" ( www.freakmountain.com/davebook ) . You can hear Dave and the Freak Mountain Ramblers doing one of Jeff's songs, "Porky" on their MySpace profile.
During the tour, Jeffrey recorded Have Moicy!" ("best album of the year," Village Voice,"the top folk album of the rock era" Rolling Stone) with Michael Hurley, Peter Stampfel, Dave Reisch, Jill Gross, Robin Remaily, Paul Presti, Wax Iwaskiewicz and Robert Nickson. Jeffrey's only full-length album,Spiders in the Moonlight was recorded in '76 after the completion of the tour and a live radio show broadcast from Rohan's Road House in Vancouver B.C. ( the source of the two disc set, Clamtones B.C. ).
In 1983 Jeff moved to Silver City, Nevada. There he gathered the cream of the crop of Northern Nevada's musicians and ooh la la! the Jeffrey Frederick Band was in motion. Among them was Johnny Fingers, guitar, and BB Morse, bass (who later joined Willy Nelson's band). The guys had them dancing at the infamous saloons of Virginia City, the clubs of Reno and Lake Tahoe, and the bars of Dayton, Yerrington and Fallon, as well as back in Portland town.
Jeffrey's music was zany, hilarious and soulful. He wrote about the people he loved and those tried to hate, "Rotten Lettuce," he wrote about family and criminal activity, "Robbin' Banks", he wrote about broken hearts, life and death, "What Made My Hamburger Disappear," always in a way that made us laugh and feel good. Hilariously, one day a friend called me and said that he had just heard "Hamburger" on Sesame Street (they must not have been paying attention to the lyrics)!
To Jeffrey it wasn't a successful show unless he "made 'em dance" and he always had us dancing.
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In 1997, Jeff left us wanting more. Frederick Productions began as my way to keep Jeff's music alive and get it into people's ears and minds. Starting with The Jeffrey Frederick Band Live At The Icehouse, continuing with Ooh la la... Les Clams and the two-CD set, Jeffrey Frederick and The Clamtones B.C., we have been releasing the best of his live performances. The Resurrection of Spiders In The Moonlight, a digitally remastered and expanded first-ever-on-CD reissue of his great studio lp with a new, Michael Hurley cover is now available through our website and music outlets around the world! It includes three studio bonus tracks with the Jeffrey Frederick Band.
In addition to Jeff's own work, we have been releasing music from his friends and proteges such as Jim Boyer (Time Spent), ace guitarist and singer of Portland's Freak Mountain Ramblers, Vermont hipster pal, Sisco (End of the Trail), Steve Weber (Holy Modal Rounders B.C. ).
Our Red Newt label showcases a whole new generation of originals, starting with Eating That Way by Portland's fabulous Alexa Wiley. And there's still much more to come from Jeff, his friends and others who keep alive the tradition of good-time Americana. There's St. Jeffrey's Day: The Songs Of Jeffrey Frederick, a multi-disk tribute in the works, featuring all the living Clamtones, and an ever-growing list of Jeffrey's bandmates, soulmates and proteges, more from Teddy Deane, Jim Boyer, and the premiere album from Jeff's son, Jake Ray. Also, we'll be publishing Jeff's songbooks.
We invite you to check out the MP3s on this profile and click on the following link to our website for more music and stories and other goodies ( www.jeffreyfrederick.com ). We're continually adding new content, so check back from time to time. You can hear his songs most every week here in his adopted hometown of Portland, sung by the Freak Mountain Ramblers, Lewi Longmire and others.
If you're a musician or broadcaster, we'd be thrilled if you would share Jeffrey's songs with your own audience. Just let us know -- if you cover Jeff's songs, please send us a tape or MP3 or CD or whatever. And we'd love to hear from you!
Kathryn Noel Frederick
www.frederickproductions.com