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MISS FREDDYE – HAS SOMETHING TO BELIEVE
IN
By Lawrence Lebo
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s own Lady of the Blues “Miss Freddye”
Stover is an award-winning Blues singer, two-time cancer
survivor and an oncology nurse! She’s won the 2008 West
Virginia Blues Society award, the 2012 Blues Society of Western
Pennsylvania best duo/solo act and was nominated in 2008 for
two Blues Foundation Awards. Then in 2020 Miss Freddye was
named Best Blues Performer by the Pittsburgh City Paper’s readers’ poll.
And if her recognition for her music is not
enough to impress, Miss Freddye was also
awarded the Star Award in 2014 from the
Pittsburgh VA Medical Center for her work
with veterans, and the 2015 Freedom From
Silence Award from the Center For
Victims. Her charity works include: Relay
for Life American Cancer Society, Pink Day
for Breast Cancer Research Foundation,
Sean Carney’s Blues For A Cure, Local
VFWs and American Legions, Toys for
Tots, Homeless Veterans, Band Together
Pittsburgh, and Sing to Stop Domestic
Violence. One might say Miss Freddye’s is
a life full and well lived.
After 25 years of singing the blues Stover
finds herself returning to her roots in the
church. Miss Freddye recently released a
single covering the well-known spiritual,
“Wade in the Water,” whose lyrics were
first published in the 1901 edition of New
Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee
Singers. The lyrics were said to be used by
Harriet Tubman to instruct fugitive slaves
to trudge through the water so that the
dogs chasing them would lose their scent.
Therefore, the song is often associated
with America’s famed Underground
Railroad. The single was produced by Mike
Morgan, arranged by Nashville's Jay
Vernali, and released on Miss Freddye’s own MMM Records label. It features Kim Parent on backing
vocals.
Miss Freddye followed up with yet another gospel single titled, “Something to Believe In”. This tune
begins more like a pop song than true gospel, but slowly ramps up, bringing in a full gospel choir