Original American folk, country blues, and bluegrass with traditional-based melodies and arrangements.

16 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Bluegrass, BLUES: Acoustic Blues



Details:
Jake Speed's second album, The Cincinnati Legends of Jeremiah Schmidt, marks the completion of a collaboration that's been in the works for over 50 years...even though Speed himself is only 25 years old! This collection of songs is based on the handwritten stories of a long-dead Cincinnati native named Jeremiah Schmidt. Schmidt's legends, which highlight such Cincinnati tales as the ghost of the subway, the tragedy of the 1937 flood, and the heroism of brewer Christian Moerlein, were found by Speed in a Stratford Street apartment in the winter of 2000. For three years, Speed studied Schmidt's stories, finally crafting the original legends into 16 songs. Though separated by over six decades, Schmidt and Speed have essentially co-written the songs found in this collection. They are Cincinnati's legends and Schmidt's stories; Speed merely functions as the instrument through which these stories finally get to sing.

The album is funded by the City of Cincinnati.