Freda performing with the Blake Babies in Allston, MA, 2016. Photography by David Young.

This week has seen Freda perform on drums for the last time.

If you missed her retirement announcement on the Sunshine Boys’ Facebook back in April here’s a snippet:

Lately I’ve been saying to the folks around me that baseball players don’t play forever. Bodies change. And mine is just about finished playing drums. I’m speaking here on behalf of my wrists, back, elbows, shoulder, knees, and hips, among other parts. And speaking on behalf, too, of the writer and teacher in me. I’m currently writing two books and teaching writing more than I ever have, and I feel strongly compelled to make more space in my life for these endeavors.

Freda performed her last show with Sunshine Boys a couple of weeks back. This last weekend saw her final drumming appearance at the Hot Stove Cool Music event in Chicago where she guested with several artists which included playing Some Girls songs in Juliana’s set.

Freda has given us so much joy over the years in her various projects. For many of us it is the music she made with Blake Babies that will be the most special legacy from her brilliant career.

Best wishes for the future Freda and thanks for everything.

Freda Love Smith performing on drums with the Blake Babies in Allston, MA 2016. Photography by David Young

Freda Love Smith, writing at Talkhouse:

Juliana Hatfield and I were bandmates in the Boston indie-rock band Blake Babies. This year marks the 30-year anniversary of our music video for the song “Out There,” which featured us shaving our heads on camera.

In early 2020, my band Sunshine Boys supported Juliana for a few shows on her US tour, and during a backstage chat we discovered we were both sick of dyeing our hair to hide the grey, and had both been thinking about chopping it all off to let nature take its course. Months later, during COVID-19 lockdown, we decided to take the leap together again, making a tidy bookend with the “Out There” video shoot 30 years earlier.

The article goes on to include an edited transcript of an email exchange between Freda and Juliana as they "reflect on now and then, going grey, and growing older."

There are photots of their glorious new haircuts there too, so I won't spoil the reveal by posting them here, particularly if you haven't seen Juliana's Twitter in recent days!

talkhouse.com/freda-love-smith-and-juliana-hatfield-got-matching-quarantine-haircuts/

Sunshine Boys - the three-piece Chicago band which includes Freda Love Smith on drums, have announced their second album with a new single Infinity Girl and a crowdfunder at Indiegogo.

The band will also be opening for Juliana at the Evanston, IL (Jan 16), Indianapolis, TN (Jan 17), Nashville, TN (Jan 18), Birmingham, AL (Jan 19) dates on Juliana's upcoming US Tour.

Also of note for that Nashville show:

yes, freda and john and i will all be at the nashville show...i'm just sayin' https://t.co/VSf5CfDKRE

— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) December 18, 2019

Update: Juliana has confirmed who will be opening on some of the other shows:

tour starts next week! first four shows w/sunshine boys (@fredalovesmith), TX shows w/emily davis and the murder police, cali w/pottymouth . ..my band is dean fisher, mike oram, and chris anzalone (et moi) 🎸🎸🎻🥁🎤 pic.twitter.com/sTOvnlMUpz

— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) January 11, 2020

Via bandcamp:

Sunshine Boys are a Chicago-based trio of veteran recording and touring artists from some of the most revered bands in indie rock. Featuring Freda Love Smith (Blake Babies, Antenna, Mysteries of Life), Jacqueline Schimmel (Justin Roberts, Big Hello), and Dag Juhlin (Poi Dog Pondering, The Slugs), Sunshine Boys offer a propulsive, melodic take on pop rock.

Listen to their debut single above and download / contribute at bandcamp.

On the day of the Women's March events around the world, Freda has written about the issue for The Talkhouse.

Juliana's on board too:

women (etc.) in DC: i'm w/you. not literally (i'm in the recording studio working on that end) but in spirit..be safe out there #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/YQCXzJTn3G

— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) January 21, 2017

Freda Love Smith, writing for The Talkhouse about the Blake Babies Earwig demos:

But if we were glued together by John, we were utterly defined by the sound of Juliana’s vocals. Listening to her young talent hits me all the harder for the years. I didn’t fully recognize this back then, but now I hear the intensity of a twenty-year-old singer and songwriter who had been waiting and waiting, often despairingly, often impatiently, for the stars to align, for an opportunity to do the thing she was born to do. And here’s that moment! She has a band, a producer, a studio and a crack engineer, and after all those years of singing in her bedroom, she takes the microphone and she nails it. She throws down harmonies and they are amazing. She is the real deal.

The article also has a premiere of the Take Me demo (originally titled Take Me, Take Me) from the project.

A reminder that the demos collection is the main item in an ongoing PledgeMusic campaign.

Two Blake Babies in discussion earlier this week in Nashville to promote Freda's recipe book / rock memoir.

The talk focuses on their love of food, touching on their respective lives in and out of the music industry.

pic.twitter.com/W39Sh9i7rD

— Freda Love Smith (@fredalovesmith) January 9, 2016

A photo of Freda, Juliana and Peter Wolf taken at last Friday's promotion event for Freda's book, via Twitter.

There's another photo at The Boston Globe.

From last week in Chicago, Freda & Robbie Fulks playing a Blake Babies track. There's more from the show at hmc1410's YouTube page.

Also, from earlier this month here's a brief WCIU-TV interview with Freda as part of her book promotion:

thanks to Carlos for the info here

The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA has announced an event for January 8, 2016:

Harvard Book Store welcomes Freda Love Smith and her former Blake Babies bandmate, local singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield for a presentation of Smith's book Red Velvet Underground: A Rock Memoir, with Recipes.

The event is free. More info at harvard.com.

Speaking of Freda, there's a new Mysteries Of Life EP titled Bad Advice out now at Bandcamp.

View fullsize

Freda Love Smith, Juliana's colleague in Blake Babies and Some Girls, has a new book out - Red Velvet Underground: A Rock Memoir, with Recipes.

You don't see enough of the memoir / recipe genre these days.

From the promo blurb:

Red Velvet Underground tells the story of how Smith's indie-rock past evolved into her domestic present. Loosely framed around cooking lessons she gives her older son, her story moves back and forward in time as she recollects how she got started in music, and how her career in rock eventually dovetailed with her passion for cooking and, later, the growth of her family. The book intersperses forty-five recipes with personal stories about her music career, cooking, eating, and family.

Here's a bit from TheTalkhouse, where you can read a fuller excerpt:

The Blake Babies and the Lemonheads had formed in Boston at about the same time, discovered each other quickly and become fast friends.

Evan and his Lemonheads partner, guitarist-singer-songwriter Ben Deily, attended one of the first shows the Blake Babies ever played, at an arty café called She’s Leaving Home. Evan stood front and center, enthusiastically rocking out, and Juliana was smitten from that moment, and far into the future. Of course, it was hard to meet that golden boy and not be smitten. Few people will ever gaze upon a human more beautiful than nineteen-year-old Evan Dando. And Evan wasn’t just a pretty face —he was an uncanny talent with a killer voice, a knack for melody and great taste in music. I will love him forever for bringing his copy of Big Star’s Radio City over to the apartment I shared with John and Juliana. “You guys are going to freak out,” he said. “I promise.” He was right. When Evan agreed to join the Blake Babies after we had unsuccessfully worked with two other bass players, we were delighted. As it turned out, it was only the beginning of a long cross-pollination between the two bands. John would later join the Lemonheads on drums, and years after that he would return as a guitar player. After the Blake Babies broke up, Juliana was an integral part of the Lemonheads’ classic record It’s a Shame About Ray.

Juliana, having read an advanced copy, has said:

These are sweet, unsentimental scenes from the ever-evolving life of a woman of many shifting and balancing roles: mother, wife, drummer, student, teacher, friend, daughter, food enthusiast. It’s all tied together with tantalizing recipes that have been lovingly improvised and tweaked into a life-affirming doneness.

The book is available in paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon USA and Amazon UK.

There's also an Apple iBooks version.

Post by Freda Love Smith.

More Blake Babies related news then. Following her live appearance in Chicago back in May, Freda's band are now back in business, recording new songs with possible live shows in 2015.

Thanks to Carlos for the info.

John Strohm (Blake Babies) song performed at The Hideout, Chicago, May 26, 2014

Freda returning to the live stage, performing with Robbie Fulks last week in Chicago. See also Out There, Temptation Eyes, Steamboat Whistle Blues, Lord, Can You Hear Me, Mad At A Girl and Nothing Ever Happens.

Thanks to hmc1410 for uploading and Carlos for spotting this on the YouTube.

Freda Love Smith, with high praise for 'Get There':

I have known Juliana Hatfield for 28 years. We have worked together in two bands, toured together countless times, and well—I love her. But even if I’d never met the woman who put the babe in Blake Babies, I would admire her agile guitar playing, ambitious songwriting, and gorgeous, unmistakable singing voice. Juliana’s productivity is staggering – she has released 19 full-length albums, and her current project, Minor Alps (a collaboration with Matthew Caws), is just about the best thing she’s ever done.

I caught Juliana before she leaves for a string of European tour dates with Minor Alps. My longtime vegetarian friend recalls the time that Denny’s slipped her a meat burger, and shares a recipe for her virtuous, tasty go-to dinner at home.

Read the article, which includes a Juliana recipe (!) at Paste.