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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 3, 2001

Music Scene
In the mood for Chicago blues

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

 •  Steve Freund With Third Degree

7:30 p.m. today

Honolulu Academy of Arts theater

$20 ($15 advance)

532-8700

10 p.m. Saturday

Hale'iwa Joe's

$10

637-8005

What do you do when you have the good fortune to be born to a classical pianist mother who also loved to teach?

Aspire to be a blues guitarist, of course.

As a kid growing up in 1950s Brooklyn, Steve Freund tried to appease his mother by learning to play the piano, but says he "just couldn't get it." As a teenager, Freund gave up all hope of mastering Chopin etudes, instead soaking up Willie Dixon covers while saving up for his own guitar. At 16, Freund conned his mother out of enough of her green stamps to get ... an 'ukulele.

"The first song I played was 'Rollin' and Tumblin,' and that's all I could play really," remembers Freund. "I drove my mom pretty insane with it until she actually ... smashed it over my head and broke it. I think she wanted me to become a banker, a lawyer or a doctor. I don't know if she wanted me to become a musician, but that's where I ended up."

More than 30 years later, Freund (pronounced "froin") can boast a successful career as a blues soloist and countless apprenticeships with Chicago blues legends, including harmonica master Big Walter Horton, guitarist Floyd Jones and pianist Sunnyland Slim. His six-string prowess has taken him on tours with the likes of Luther Allison, Koko Taylor and Boz Scaggs, as well as the occasional solo tour of his own.

Freund makes his Hawai'i performance debut this weekend with an appearance tonight at the Honolulu Academy of Arts theater, and tomorrow night at Hale'iwa Joe's. Honolulu blues crew Third Degree will back Freund at both shows.

During a recent afternoon phone chat, Freund recalled his post-'ukulele-smashing career while strolling amidst the potatoes and lettuce in his backyard organic garden.

"Greenwich Village had some great blues concerts, so I started hanging out at coffeehouses and sneaking into places I wasn't supposed to when I was 17," Freund says.

It was 1969, and Freund had recently picked up his first guitar — a six-string Stratocaster copy — with $30 in savings from his busboy job. He taught himself to play, picking up licks from friends and the blues legends he idolized, while playing street corners and the occasional club gig.

A 1976 visit to Chicago to sample the city's famed blues clubs was all it took for Freund to consider pursuing blues musicianship full time.

"We saw a different legendary blues artist every night during that trip," remembers Freund, who quit his job as a fishing-tackle salesman (stints as a taxi driver and telephone salesman had preceded this) as soon as he arrived back in Brooklyn. "I had my guitar, my amp, a bag of clothes and a thousand dollars in savings." And surprisingly enough, immediate gigs.

One of his first was accompanying Sunnyland Slim, whom Freund had met years earlier in a Village club. In addition to introducing Freund around Chicago's potent blues scene, Slim encouraged the young guitarist to develop his growly vocals as well as his fret work. Building his Chicago rep, Freund began to gig and tour with blues legends he had admired for years.

"The old guys saw my potential, but they also saw my true passion and love" for the music, Freund says. "They encouraged me. All I ever wanted to do was just play as often as I could with the best musicians. And for the first 10 years I was there, I went out every single night, whether I had a gig or not. If I didn't have a gig, I would go out and sit in."

The life of a full-time blues musician suited Freund just fine until the Chicago blues scene began to change in the early 1990s.

"The real traditional blues that I liked" was losing its popularity there, Freund says. "Plus, I felt that I had climbed as far as I was going to get in Chicago. My parents both died. I was married, and that fell apart. I needed a change in my life, a healthier lifestyle and some sunshine."

Freund moved to San Francisco in 1994, starting from scratch after almost two decades in Chicago. Though gigs were tough to come by at first, Freund eventually got some help from a Bay Area blues-rocker he befriended during a swing through the Windy City.

"Boz Scaggs was a big help to me," says Freund. "We started playing together, recorded on his CD and did some tours together. He inspired me to really go for it" in California. Scaggs later added guitar to several tracks on Freund's 1999 release, "C Is For Chicago," a tribute to the city's blues and the blues musicians who helped and inspired him.

Freund's lifestyle these days, while a bit more sedentary, is still full of activity. In addition to playing blues festivals and touring both as a soloist and accompanist — he just finished a Canadian tour with blues harpist James Cotton — Freund is a staple of San Francisco's busy blues scene, just minutes from his still relatively newfound suburban roots.

"I own real estate here," says Freund contentedly. "I get to garden and hike in the hills with my dog when I'm not playing music."

A blues axman with a trowel and V-hoe?

"I could feed a lot of people off of my garden," laughs Freund. "It's not very big, but it's intensive and organic."