Pittsburgh’s Lady of the Blues: Miss Freddye
Written by Eric Pursh
She’s a cancer survivor two times over. She’s a mom, a nurse, and a graduate of Peabody High School. She started with Blues Music Works in 1996, formed Blue Faze in 2002. And now, as the frontwoman in both the electric Miss Freddye’s Blues Band and the acoustic Miss Freddye’s Homecookin’ Band, Freddye Stover (a.k.a. Miss Freddye) is quickly becoming a Pittsburgh Blues Legend.
Two bands, a full-time job, lots of gigs. Sounds like a lot. How do you manage it?
I don’t know how I do it, but it’s something I’m passionate about. I ask all the time, “who wants to take over?” This has been going on for 15 years. No one wants to be “Band Leader!”
You don’t have a band manager?
No. Well.. you’re looking at her. But I love to do bookings. I would do that all day if I could. But I do have a publicity guy. Michael Stover at MTS Management. But as far as booking gigs and getting my name out there, that’d be me.
So you have a lot going on right now, including a new single...
Yes! Something to Believe In came out on April 24, 2021. It’s a cover song written by Frank Wildhorn. My producer Bryan Cole took it and re-did it and said, “I think you can do this!”
And it looks like it’s doing well on Spotify.
[Laughs] It’s so weird, those numbers go up and down. Honestly, the day I posted about it (a couple of days after its release) it was at 4,000 all-time streams. I don’t know how they actually compose those numbers! But I can tell you that the first single I released has 110,386 streams since last August, and I’m really hoping Something to Believe In does just as well!
You’ve had a lot of good publicity in a fairly short amount of time, including being voted Best Blues Band by the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2020. Aside from creating great music, to what do you attribute this success?
You know, I Googled myself the other day and was wondering when someone is going to make my Wikipedia page! [laughs]. But seriously, I think success no matter what you do - is a passion and a drive. There’s a song I covered by an artist named Eric Bibb that’s called Don’t Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down, and I draw from that. If there’s something that not only you believe in, but you think other people will believe in, then go for it!
It’s OK to not set that bar too high at first. When I was in my 20’s, I would set the bar too high and be disappointed if things didn’t work out the way I thought. Then I learned not to compete with others, but to compete with myself. Always be better than the person you were the day before. And that works for me. Man, that’s such a competition!
If you can set your priorities, and just stay on it, you’ll see your success start to take off. It’s the little things you do every day that makes the difference.
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