Last modified: Saturday, March 10, 2007 11:12 PM EST
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| Frank Lewis - Daily Times - Music writer and artist, Steve Free, sits in Ye Olde Lantern and prepares for a performance. Free's song “Just a Baby Boy” recently hit the top of the International Gospel Music Chart, according to Gospel Train Express. |
Artist hits No.1 with ‘Just a Baby Boy'
By FRANK LEWIS
PDT Staff Writer
Scioto County Appalachian folk music writer and artist Steve Free has
added another feather to his hat. Free's Christmas song “Just a
Baby Boy,” has landed at the top of the International Gospel Music
Chart, from the publication Gospel Train Express.
“It's on some other charts too, but in this one it's number one,” Free
said.
He found out the song hit No. 1 last week.
“I put the song out three years ago and it's done well, especially
overseas,” Free said. “But this year it's just taken off.
All of a sudden, I started getting these e-mails from overseas people
saying ‘They're playing your song in Australia, New Zealand, Malta,
and they are saying they really like it.' And then I got phone calls
and did interviews in Amherst, Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma.”
The song is different from Free's usual genre, and it has received response
from gospel radio stations, including stations that play Southern Gospel
music, which surprises him.
“I'm basically a folk songwriter, and nobody knows what that is
anymore,” Free said. “Basically you're a storyteller, and
I've had 11 songs on the charts. My songs are stories, so they hit different
charts. It depends on what the song is about.”
Free said writing the song “Just a Baby Boy,” was something
inevitable in his career.
“I always liked Christmas music, but I always felt like there wasn't
any new Christmas songs, especially songs with meaning. And I just wanted
to write a song that told a story, again,” he said. “I'm
a storyteller and that's the greatest story ever told.”
Free said when he and producer Shad O'Shea, of Fraternity Records, originally
produced the song to send in Christmas cards to radio stations, “And
then everybody started playing it, so we thought, ‘Well, let's
put it out again next year,' and people would buy them for everybody
in their church.”
Most of the time Free's songs are about the river, Appalachia and Native
Americans. And he said most of his music gets more air play in other
countries.
“Maybe they're just more fascinated with American music,” Free
said. “The reason this song got so much air play in the United
States was because it falls into the gospel format, and because of the
message behind it.”
Free said that because most radio stations are tightly formatted, his
songs get played mostly on Americana stations, National Public Radio
and college stations. He said most overseas radio stations have a more
mixed format, playing different artists from those played in the U.S.
Free recently won another ASCAP award. This one was for a Fraternity
Records 50th anniversary CD with various artists.
The Ohio Arts Council has just named Free an Ohio Artist on Tour.
“They select 80 some artists, most are like opera singers, and
some dancers” he said. “I applied and now the Ohio Arts Council
pays part of my fee.”
Free will be doing a 10-cities tour in areas of northern Ohio including
Akron and Canton, and in the Lake Erie region. In June, Free plans to
do 11 shows in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Free recently performed at the inauguration of Gov. Ted Strickland, and
while there, he came in contact with a lot of acts in the performing
arts field around the state. He said when he announced that he was from
southern Ohio, all the people in the Portsmouth and Scioto County section
cheered.
Free said he is gearing up for his tour and looking forward to the festival
season at the end of the summer.