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World Come Clean marks a departure from the traditional folk and bluegrass sound that has come to embody Jake Speed & the Freddies. While the Freddies still lay down an acoustic foundation, World Come Clean builds a bigger sound with layers of drums, electric guitar & bass, and string quartet. And while Jake Speed’s songwriting will always hearken back to Woody Guthrie, the 11 selections on this album speak in a less literal, more metaphoric voice.

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Losantaville, a collection of 6 original Freddies Christmas tunes and 4 Santa-suited carols, jingle-jangles with Jesus-free images of top-of-the-steps Christmas Day excitement. 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 Blue Grass,” 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).

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Huzzah! touches all the folk music bases, sounding Ragtimey on “Tear It Down Rag,” Jug Bandy on “Volvo Girl,” Bluegrassy on “Hard Times at My Door,” and Woody Guthrie on “Talkin’ F-Word Blues.” The field full of musicians on Huzzah! (including local Bluegrass all stars, Katie Laur and Ed Cunningham) gives the album a chance to cheer in so many different voices. One minute, it’ll round third and head for home with “Old Man Joe,” while the next minute it’ll serenely sail along the banks with “Ohio River Waltz.” It’ll poke fun at politics on “First Street Fell,” and then pray peacefully on “Fare Thee Well.” Typewriters, Watering Cans, and Washboards strike up with the rest of the band’s fiddles, guitars, banjos, basses, and harmonicas, making Huzzah! the most tossed around sound Jake Speed & the Freddies have struck so far.

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The Cincinnati Legends of Jeremiah Schmidt is a collection of songs based on the handwritten stories of a long-dead Cincinnati native named Jeremiah Schmidt. Schmidt’s legends (found by Speed and later adapted into songs) highlight such Cincinnati tales as the ghost of the subway, the tragedy of the 1937 flood, the heroism of brewer Christian Moerlein, and the witch in the Mill Creek. The song arrangements range from solo guitar and vocal to full bluegrass ensemble. While some of the Freddies are present on the album, this project is a solo one for Jake Speed.

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The songs that my banjo picks and my washboard kicks and my harp hums and my guitar strums are songs that hop freights, run rivers, ride ferries, and hit hard roads. They're songs that can fistfight, jig dance, whiskey sip, belly flip; songs about hard times, good times, just-sorta-in-between times, times when you can't quit laughing even though you ain't got a dime to dip out of your pocket. These songs that I sing in and around and up and cross-legged and eastbound and right-side-up are about honest folks who are trying to keep out of jails, fights, blackjack hands, drunken head stands, gunslings and nooserings, busted lips and broken hearts. Some of the songs ain't got no other job than to make your outsides wiggle, your hips jiggle, your lips sizzle. And some of the songs need to curl up on the thinkingest, contemplatingest, debatingest, worryingest, opinionatedest part of your brain that you oughtn't let rot away (you'll be needing it someday, I'll say). I never have tried to sing the down right prettiest song or cuddliest song or obscure lyric kind of a song. I don't aim to confuse misconstrue lead astray cast away or engage in any other discriminating way that winds up dividing me the singer from you the person. I'm mainly just a freight train on a tornado track trying to ride good times into your part of town.

A collection of original songs inspired by Loren Long's book series, Sluggers.