April 1st - EmmittPalooza
There is a town about 20 minutes or so south from where we grew up called Waverly.  Founded in 1829, Waverly is about 10 minutes or maybe less from where Dennis the Menace grew up...Piketon.  Everyone knows Dennis in that area.  Hell, he ran for city council or some shit last year.  Every once in awhile he'll still where the shirt.  Foreman for City Council.  Actually I think it was for Judge or something.  Seriously.  Anyways, there is this cool little place there called the Emmitt House.  It's not really "little" by any means...it's actually pretty big with like 3 or 4 different rooms, an upstairs, and an adjoining pub called the Canal Pub.  Anywayz, every year they have something they call "EmmittPalooza."  Four different bands come in and rock out from like 8:00 pm to 2:00 a.m. or something.  Oh my god, Louie is barking at me right now and everytime I tell him "No" he lunges at me like a wild hiena or something.  I really think that he thinks he is a human being.  Funny how he doesn't see that he eats his food out of a bowl on the floor and I eat mine off of fine dinner china.  Well, maybe a paper plate but you get the drift.  Jesus, my ears are bleeding from this...hold on.  Ok, he just had to poop.  Have you ever been walking by a dog while it was pooping, and then pointed and laughed mockingly at it?  Bobby and I used to do this to our dog "Muff" growing up and everytime she would look at us with an ashamed look on her face.  It really seemed like she understood us.  As if to say, "I know guys, but I don't have any other choice."  Ok back to EmmittPalooza.  It was hoooooot in therrr.  I sweated like a maniac as usual, which I'm starting to think is going to keep us from getting big.  Imagine Jakob Freely performing at the Grammy's one day.  They'd never have us back, man, I'm serious.  I'd sweat all over the place and people would be all throwing up and shit.  Ok, I know all I need is a fan or maybe some nerve pills or something.  But we cranked through our set...which I thought sounded superb...got a standing ovation...which is pretty rare in a bar...and sold some merch.  In fact, we're almost out of merch.  We've been selling the shit out of it lately.  TEAM FREELY was there and in full effect promoting, selling, drinking.  So that was cool.  Big Ups to Lodge, Manson, and Walker the Texas Wasted Ass, I think I heard him mumble a couple of things.  Alright...Louie is barking again.  Gotta go.  Pics should be up soon.  Keep checking back.  It keeps our web hits up...which may lead to sponsorship...which may lead to me not taking my moms damn car to gigs anymore.  Oh, go join Team Freely...we need your help!  Hollaaaaa - D
March 30th - Mo'head again...Crazy Bastards
I gotta tell you...I start most of these journal entries with things like "Oh" and "Man" and "Jesus" because it makes everything sound more dramatic and I guess kind of sets the tone for what I'm about to dramatize.  But I'm for real this time.  We played another show down in Morehead for the Delt and TEK Frats at a place called the Cider House.  Our buddy Bryan Gavin of One Less Distraction joined us to play some O.L.D tunes beforehand.  And I'm serious.  You'll never understand how f*king crazy they are down there.  There aren't enough words in the english language to do it justice.  After 4 hours on the road we finally arrived and the first thing the lady who owned the place said when she saw us is "I gotta talk to you and you're not going to like it..."  So Bobby goes into panic mode...and I just walk away because I'm kind of a puss when it comes to initial confrontation.  But anyways, they double booked us with another band.  Fast forward a bit...Big Joe from the Delts came in and laid the hammer down...the other band was cool as hell...the show went on.  Right before we went on some crazy asshole completely shattered a urinal in the men's restroom.  No, you don't understand.  I don't think you could even do this with dynamite...the damage he did.  I don't know how he got it into that many peices.  Then someone ripped the toilet stall out of the floor.  Fuckers were spilling beers everywhere...jumping up onstage.  I don't know what it is man, but you'd think sometimes we were fucking Pantera or something the way people react at our shows.  About 3/4 of the time we play a show in our hometown a fight breaks out at the end of the night.  Weird.  But, somewhere in the night we lost Gavin and his crew.  Bobby tried to call him a few times to no avail.  Hope he makes it back to Dayton.  Check in with his journal...I bet they got lost and stumbled upon some woodsmen.  Speaking of woodsmen, Bobby called me in his drunking stupor to tell me that he was in jail.  He sounded very distraught and concerned that he was going to be in a lot of trouble.  Keep in mind we are deep in the backhills of Kentucky.  I ask him what happened and he said...and I quote..."We were standing out by the fire and then I looked over and a Mountain Man ran out of the woods and was about to ass rape Skeens, so I flipped out and beat the shit out of him...so the sheriff arrested me."  I just went ahead and hung up as he was laughing in my ear.  Oh well, all in all it was a damn good night.  The people love to party down there...harder than anywhere I've been in awhile.  So it always makes for a good time. 
March 14th - Dayton/Memphis/Nashville
Oh.  It was a weekend of firsts.  First time as Jakob Freely in Tennessee.  First time sleeping in the car.  First time taking a shower at a truckstop.  We played a show on Thursday with our dudez One Less Distraction in Dayton, OH.  Pretty nice show, we weren't happy with how we performed, but the feedback was good.  I'm getting some kind of TB in my lungs.  Bobby keeps calling it the Eagle Flu, and I've been calling it SARS.  We'll see when it develops.  But it affected my voice, that's all I know.  Our time going through Memphis and Nashville made me realize one thing.  That we're freaking thugs on the road.  After the show on Friday we drove about 30 miles out of Memphis and pulled over at a BP.  I turned off the car and tried to fall asleep sitting completely straight up.  I mean, I was sitting so straight that I was closer to leaning forward.  Dennis was in the back seat mumbling creepy ass nothings in his sleep while the ringtone on his phone repeated "Grandma got ran over by a reindeer...."  I thought we'd be slaughtered any minute...it felt like a horror movie.  We finally awoke around 5:30 a.m. after a couple hours and drove about 45 more miles and fell asleep at another truck stop.  After that one we stumbled down the road about an hour or so and landed at yet another truck stop for a hot shower.  Five bucks gets you a hot shower at a truck stop.  Yea, you might walk away with AIDS on your feet from the floor, but you'll feel better and you don't have to spend money on a hotel.  I'll tell you another thing we discovered you don't have to spend money on while you're on the road.  Sex.  I'm kidding, I mean breakfast.  While Dennis was getting his shower, Bobby and I went down the road to the nearest Days Inn.  I parked in the back, and Bobby weaved his way through doors to the front area where the Continental breakfast is held.  He proceeded to fill his pockets with honeybuns, apples,  orange juice, and the lady there even made him fresh coffee as she asked him how he slept.  "Great!" he yawned..."What's the weather going to be like today??"  Classic small talk question.  

Nashville was Nashville.  If you've ever been there you'll know what I mean.  The bar we played paid us a great compliment by calling us the "most entertaining act they've ever had."  I don't know exactly how they judge that, but I thought it was cool...especially in a town known only for it's music scene.  If you get a chance skate over to the FreelyStripped section and check out the video of Bobby from about a month ago out in Minnesota.  Great dancing is all I can say.  I'm not feeling very whimsical or I'd try to remember some funny stories.  I'm going on about 4 days of no sleep, so I'm on autopilot right now.  See you at a show, Yo.

March 5th - Sunday Bloody Sunday
My throat is killing me.  Oh god, I just had a flashback of a solo show I did a couple of weeks ago.  Someone approached the stage with a shot and a song request.  I really like shots so I grabbed it, gathered the song request, and proceeded to smell what was in the glass.  Because for some reason she gave me a shot in a short drink glass and it was almost filled to the brim.  So, picture a triple shot or something like that.  The smell immediately made my stomach gnarl....which to me means straight Tequila.  I will projectile vomit all over the place if you bring tequila to me...something about it, I hate it.  As I smelled, asked a couple of times, "Is this Tequila?"  "What is this?" Every time I got the old "Shut up and do it...just drink it!"  So buckeled under the pressure and threw it back...and I almost threw it up right after.  It was a triple shot of 151.  I don't know who in their god damn right mind thought that was a good idea, but I spent the next 2 hours trying to figure out how I wasn't going to throw up all over everyone.  And it was my first time playing in this bar, so I was trying to make a good impression...which made the stress even worse.  I kept burping and the tasted of the burp would make me dry heave and then I would grimace from the dry heave...it was a never ending cycle.  But that wasn't the kicker.  Right after I took that...another guy came up with a shot and said, "Do you know any Dave Matthews?"  I think that's what he said...Oh well, all I remember is thinking I'd rather dive head first off the balcony of the bar I was playing than take that second shot.  But guess what...Ol Dave can't say no.  So he threw that one back and almost shit himself.  Now I'm talking in the third person.  Or whatever it's called.  It's because I'm in that semi-depressed/dazed/hungover Sunday mood.  We played a show in Chillicothe, OH at our old High School to help them raise money for prom.  It was really cool.  We got some new t-shirts in that night and we sold out of them almost before we even took the stage.  Plus everyone there was really nice.  This week we'll be in Dayton, Memphis, and Nashville.  Come with us, we'll need the company.  Lata.
March 2nd - Back to Bloominton/We need a van!
Oh god.  I'm serious.  We really need a van.  Picture 3 guys, all over 6'2" scrunched into a 2001 Chevy Cavalier, along with guitars, bags, 2 djembes, speakers, etc.  It doesn't look very big time when we pull up, that's for sure.  Any "mystique" about Jakob Freely is immediately erased when we pull up in that son of a bitch.  Sometimes we take my Hyundai Sonata, which has been funny on college campuses.  Last year we pulled onto High Street in Athens, OH for High Fest (see first journal entry) and someone yelled "Hey, Nice Hyundai."  Oh and here's a great one.  Sometimes we borrow my mom's car.  Go ahead, laugh it up.  Picture JF flying up I-90 through Chicago riding in style in the 2005 Mercury Montego.  Tons of leg room, leather seats, the works.  Hell, if I could even get my hands on a trailer, I'd get a hitch for my Sonata and pull that shit around the midwest.  Looking like a complete douchehammer, we'd pull up to gigs, and they'd probably just tell us to go home.  Oh well, we'll get one someday I'm sure.  I think we have a couple people working on it...you know, trying to get someone to sponsor one.  We'll see.  You might see ol' JF doing dougnuts in the parking lot of a bar in celebration here in a couple months if it works out.  Anywayz, we're heading to Bloomington tonight.  We've only been there once.  And it was cool until I hit that big ass deer on the way home.  There's a journal entry below about that I believe.  Should make for some good times going back, 8 hours round trip with Bobby and Dennis.  I'll post something tomorrow.  - phantom D
February 23rd - We're Back!
Back from the baron winter wasteland that is Minnesota.  I almost forgot what it was like there.  We experienced a couple of -30 degree days with windchill.  But before we get too deep here, stop and think about, according to these journal entries, how a Jakob Freely "mini-tour" would go.  Got it yet?  Well if you pictured a train wreck complete with burning babies and bigfoot monsters rummaging the carnage, flying dragons spitting hellfire onto all those emerging from the catastrophe, then you got us on a good day.  There is a mild curse that follows JF and some think it may have to do with the knome from Windsor.  Anyways here's a quick summary:  We got caught in the worst blizzard Wisconsin has had in 5 years, went 30 mph for over 600 miles, cancelled a show, had a messup with the LIVE broadcast at the Mayo Clinic, and Bobby lost his left leg.  Kidding.  He lost three fingers from his right hand.  Kidding again.  He's dead.  Ok, nevermind.  I'm just a drama queen.  We had a great time.  All that stuff is true above, except for Bobby being dead.  I still haven't slept since last week and I saw for the first time what piss looks like frozen in an Evian water bottle.  Bobby has this thing where he hates to stop on the road, so he finds whatever he can in the car and pisses in it.  This time, our only ration of water was the victim...so Bobby poured all leftover water into three coffee cups and manuevered himself as cars passed.  I stopped any about 3 exits later and pissed where human beings piss.  In a bathroom.  I swear, next he'll shit on a plate and throw it out the window.  

Did you know you can make Ramen noodles in a coffee maker?  I swear it.  Everyone thinks Bobby's brain is shut "off" but I think he's just messing with everyone.  I was rasing hell about "How am I supposed to eat these??" and Bobby took them and threw them in the coffee maker...5 minutes later I had Spicy Vegetable Ramen noodles.  You can also enjoy them completely raw, which we did on the way back to Ohio.  They're kind of pastey that way, but it saves cash.  

I got some great video of Bobby dancing like a stripper to a Rolling Stones song...I can't remember which.  But it's good dancing.  Dennis found him a female and retreated to empty rooms and shawdoed corners for both Mankato evenings.  A big shout out to the Hobbit himself for letting us crash.  The confines of your basement were stone cold freezing, but all your fishtanks are relaxing.  As well as the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale stocked in your fridge.   I'll have more to share as the days pass and things pop up in my head.  Later - D

February 13th - Valentine's Day Eve
Oooh. Valentine's Day Eve. A.K.A "Crunch Time" if you don't know what you're going to do for your significant other. Of course, I know exactly what I'm doing...But I'm horrible at it. We're now at a "grass is greener on the other side" scenario. You know, if I wasn't a musician, if I couldn't play the guitar then it wouldn't be that way. But everytime something romantic comes up, like V-Day, part of my gift usually includes a song. Which, despite her saying, "No seriously I love it still..." I can tell it's lost it's touch. And you can imagine. Anything you've ever done or tried that was cool, eventually you just became numb to it or "calloused" so to speak. So what do I do? I'll have to think of something I normally wouldn't do...and that's what I'll do. Shit, If I could just find a Unicorn or a Liger she'd think I was magic. Or maybe I'll adopt a child and bring it home in a box wrapped tight with a red ribbon...and when she opens it I'll say "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Anyways, we played in Findlay last Thursday at Nino's. Really cool place. Especially the dudes that run it. And the man himself, Nino. They gave us a bag full of Red Bulls when we left and Nino wrote my wife an excuse for coming home late after the show. I seriously don't know how I made that drive. It was another one of those up over 24 hours in a row deals that I've been pulling off about 3 times a week now for a few months...but this time I think I woke up a couple times to find myself behind the wheel at 65 mph. So I'd suck down a Red Bull and repeat. Now I see why so many musicians do coke or get hooked on caffiene pills or something. Or I could just call my wife and say "I need to stay in Findlay tonight..." Something tells me that wouldn't fly.

Saturday we participated in a taping for TheNextTv.com called "American Song" where we taped a live video performance of "In Spite of Me" and "Fish." A lot of other bands came in an did a couple of tunes as well. The only ones I recognized were Red Wanting Blue and The Nathan Witt Band. We're friends with Nathan and RWB were cool...they're a pretty hard working band too.

So this week we're heading back to where it all started...Minnesota. If we make it out alive you can expect some funny shit on this page because Dennis is coming with us this time. And Thursday night we'll be playing our first ever living room show in a vacant apartment in Uptown Minneapolis. Talk to you soon. -Phantom D Hustle.

February 4th - A Weekend of Shows
It's around 4:25 a.m. Sunday morning and I'm sitting here drinking a Red Stripe reflecting on our shows this weekend. It's nuts how much shit can happen in 3 days. Thursday we packed out McGuffy's in Dayton, OH with our buddies One Less Distraction. And, amazingly the only thing that went wrong that night was that we got lost and were a little late for soundcheck. Pretty damn impressive by Freely standards. Really, nothing even that funny happened. I don't even think I have any words of wisdom. Usually someone dies or gets thrown in jail or whatever or has a miscarriage or something. Ok, it's late. I'm sorry. Bad taste on my part there. But Thursday was great. Friday we played at a the Colony Theater in Hillsboro, Oh. Pretty cool because we usually play to a bunch of insane drunk ass people at a bar. Instead, we played to a bunch of people who were actually there to hear songs. They applauded after our songs. When we finished and walked offstage I gave the bass player of McGuffey Lane a Jakob Freely t-shirt and Bobby asked, "Hey dude, what's your name??" The guy looked real uncomfortable and said, "Steve Reese man..." I grabbed Bobby when we got outside and said, "Are you fucking crazy?? He's gonna think we're douchebags now!" But the reality of it was we just didn't do our homework. We've always heard of McGuffey Lane, but have never listened to them. Strike 1, 2, and 3 right there. Saturday just started off horrible. Not only did it start storming, but our friend Skeens wrapped his damn $50,000 truck around a tree. Skeensy loves his truck, so this took the life out of him. But he still came to the show at Andyman's and after some early hijinx that included about 2 gallons of coffee and 3 gallons of Jack Daniels, he composed himself and had a good time. Actually, when the first act went on, he started yelling at me "Hit me in the fucking chest!" And someone that was with the opening act said "Hey, do you think he's going to calm down before he starts playing?" So I said, "Look he just wrapped his truck around a tree and we're in a bar, I'm not going to tell him to calm down..." Maybe one day we'll hit it big and I can just buy Skeensy and everyone new trucks. So, not your usual Freely journal...except the wreck and the theater show. Check out the website in the next couple of weeks for some of the live stuff that was recorded at Andyman's in Columbus, Oh tonight. Oh and big ups to the Morehead Crew for driving up amidst the freezing cold and snow to attend the show. I'm sure I'll think of something totally random and write a new entry tomorrow. Hollaaaaa - Dave
January 27th - Athens Will Smoke Yo' Ass
I've done the stats...I've worked the math. I get into some kind of altercation 42.333% of the times that Jakob Freely has been to Athens, Ohio for a show. This past Wednesday night we played at the Blue Gator and it went fairly well. A few people had JF listener parties and rounded extra people up to come out for the show. We finished up around 1:00 a.m. and on the way home I get pulled over. The cop said he clocked me at 110 in a 55...I'm kidding, he asked me "Do you know how fast you were going??" I said, "Umm, I don't know...80?" He shook he's head and said, "66." I thought "Are you shitting me??" So he asked for the standard stuff...you know, licsense and registration, etc. I handed him everything and a couple minutes later he said, "This is your voter registration..." And then Skeensy started laughing which made me nervous cuz I didn't want the cop to think we were on drugs and pull me out of the car for a test. But all in all I can't complain because he gave me a warning. I did put it down on my mental list of things that have happened the last few times we've been to Athens. They are as follows: Fight with Fratboys, Ticket for expired licsence, going right on red, no seatbelt, expired tags, and speeding. So, from now on I'm taking a helicopter to Athens. And I'm wearing a neoprene vest with a glock 9 strapped to my side. I'm going straight Rambo on that town for awhile.
January 20th - Charleston, WV
Nothing says your in the south like a couple of racial slurs shouted outloud. I was unloading the last of our things when I heard some Super Red Neck yell out the window to a passing black man. I'm not going to type what was said, but it gave me a full understand of exactly where I was at the moment. The funny thing is though that Charleston isn't even in the South really. It's only a couple hours from where we all grew up, and even though I grew up around some Skanky Skankertons, I didn't hear that stuff outloud too much. Well, anyways, to those of you who drove from the Head, thanks again. I can't believe you guys. You've been to enough shows now that we need to come up with a name for you...lately we've been just calling you the Mo'head Crew, but I want to come up with something with some stank on it. Something gangsta. Wow, I sounded like 50 cent there for a sec. But, we cranked through a couple of long sets, met a few new friends, was asked to be in an independent film, and received glares of horror from those who didn't appreciate our renditions of the hip hop tunes that we play. After the show we loaded out and as we were talking to someone a random crack head approached the car and tried to squeeze a dollar out of us. And here's what she said...brace yourself cuz it's fucking original as hell. "Oh, wait a minute, Oh am I scarin' ya'll cuz I'm black!!" And the great thing was, we weren't even looking at her when she said that. You could tell it was the well rehearsed line she uses to hustle out of town white people. So I laughed and said "seriously don't play that card, no one standing here gives a shit that you're black." She then tried to back peddle her way into explaining why we looked scared, but by the time she could get it out I had already told her I wasn't giving her any money. But, no, her crack head ass didn't understand, so I had to make it clear for her. Then I asked her if she was getting scared because I was white. And she didn't know what that meant, but I thought it was funny. I love it when people create things that aren't there so they'll have something to blame or something to point the finger at or something that will give them another distraction from their sorry ass existence. So, yes, a very racially driven night. I couldn't believe it really. I figured it was 2006 and people were over all that stupid shit. But I guess it's 1962 in Charleston. See you at Muskingum tonight - D
January 13th - Snoop Bloggy Blog and the Blogpound
Ooooh. Great show at the Canal Street Tavern last night. Dennis could hear himself so he was pounding away like a god damned Orangutang, Bobby was shaking his little ass, and I was in full effect. Sweating like no man has ever sweated before. I must say we were surprised at the turnout. We went onstage around 10:30, but by 9:15 it seemed like I had shaken every hand in the bar. It actually took us a few minutes to get off stage as we were dodging the girls that were dropping it like it's hot all over the rustic floor of the tavern. Jakob Freely E-Team/Idea guy Josh Skeens came with us last night and before he got in the car he said, "Get out of the car and look! I almost didn't come with you fuckers tonight." I got out of the car and followed his finger to the sky and there it was in all it's glory. Jesus Christ. I'm kidding, it was a full moon. And if you don't know anything about old folklore than your a jackhammer, but a full moon usually means "crazy" and here at JF Inc. we're about as ridiculous as it gets, short of shedding our skin through bellows of terror, emerging as a Werewolves. So I gotta tell ya, I was nervous about it. Combine that with the fact that I haven't had my brakes changed on my car...ever. They're starting to get to the point where I hope I get lucky enought to be able to stop in time. I have to almost time it up perfectly to stop on a dime. I know, I'm a skank. But anyways, we had some great fun last night. I don't know if I've ever used the term "Great Fun" before.

So It's Friday the 13th. I was wondering why I couldn't sleep when I got home last night. I thought it was just because I was still excited about how the show turned out. But this explains everything. Freddy Krueger was keeping me up. I'm telling you right now I'm glad we aren't playing a show tonight. A Friday the 13th Jakob Freely show would go something like this...well, I won't paint a picture for you, but let's just say I bet you someone would die, something would catch on fire, someone would give birth, and there would be a chemical explosion.

If you came out last night Thanks. You made it great. It was our first time there and really our first time in Dayton. See you at McGuffey's February the 2nd with Bryan Gavin. -D supreme

January 10th - Richard Noggins a.ka. Dick Heads
No these people weren't dicks to us. That's actually what the name of the bar is. Richard Noggins. And I thought I was so hilarious when I first saw we were playing there and I looked at Bobby and said, "Hahaha, I should tell them that their name means Dick Heads!" Of course, Bobby gave me a courtesy laugh, and when we got there to set up it was already plastered everywhere making me feel like an complete douchrocket. But anyways, this was a good show to get the cobwebs out. We've never played in Portsmouth, Ohio before, but Richard Noggins was a cool little venue. It was the usual JF fare at this show. Bobby and Dennis were late to start things off, which turned out not to be a big deal. Then about halfway through the first set a bartender approached the stage and told our sound guy that he "smelled something burning." Two songs after that I looked down at our monitor and there was smoke bellowing from the speaker. Awesome. No more monitor. I guess that's really it. Wow, not bad. There were some other "minor" things that I could bitch about, but I think I'll let it rest. This Thursday we head to the Canal Street Tavern in Dayton, OH. We've never been there before so I'm sure I'll have plenty of tasty treats for you on Friday morning. Usually when we've never played somewhere before, a whole host of things can go wrong. If any one of them decide to rear it's ugly head, I'll post it Friday. Other than that I really can't think of anything. Oh, we're recording some new material and a full JF trio version of Gold Digger on Saturday. So be on the lookout for that next week. Holla at a cracka.

January 1st - Happy Easter...I mean New Year
Oh wow. I lucked out this morning. Absolutely no hangover whatsoever. Lately for some reason I've been getting hangovers that are one step from feeling like what I call "Vietnam." Sounds totally random, but I figure Vietnam was a complete fucking mess so everything in my life that turns out that way I compare it to that. And please don't get on your damn soap box right now. Don't be a douchebag. Vietnam was way worse than anything I'll ever experience. It's just a figure of speech. Ok, enough political banter. If you wake up with a hangover take 2 extra strength tylenol, 2 flintstone vitamins, 2 500 mg tablets of vitamin C with Rose Hips, 20 oz of water, and go back to sleep. Trust me. I'm sitting here randomly typing and I'm so dirty right now that the inside of my nose stinks and I feel all overheated. I don't know how that happens but my skanky ass brother and J. Freely's other half brought this to my attention a few weeks ago and now I can't stop paying attention to it. No, he didn't smell the inside of my nose, he told me about his and I noticed mine. I told my wife about it and she dry heaved. I love it when people dry heave. Especially over things like farts, burps, bad breath. Shit has to be pretty foul for me to dry heave so when I tell my wife about the aforementioned nose thingy and she dry heaves, it cracks me up. Everyone has their dry heave threshold. When I was younger, some dirty chick got on the school bus, picked a burger that had the longest trail of snot I've ever seen, and proceeded to suck it down....oh god. I gagged so hard on that one I busted blood vessels around my eye sockets. But today I could take that one in stride. I think I'd just grimace instead of gag.

We're hitting the road again starting this Thursday. We're hitting up some new cities as well so you can expect some consistent journal entries unlike this past couple of months. Hell, even if I have to waste a whole entry on the Dynamics of the Dry Heave and my Dissertation on the Gag, I will. I'm shameless. See you at a show. - D

November 3rd - JF Homemade Shirts
Check it out at MySpace.

October 29th - Wittenberg Homecoming.
Check it out here at MySpace.

October 23rd - We've dodged another one.
Check it out at MySpace.

October 20th - J. Freely, Deer Hunter.
Check out the MySpace for this journal entry.

October 13th - MySpace
Oh yes, I don't feel like typing the same entry twice...go to our MySpace page and check out the new entry there. Holla.

October 4th - Yet Another City

Yes...even more Jakob Freely journal laziness. I'm still unpacking, but if you want to read another journal exerpt go here. It's a new blog on our MySpace page. I tried to cut and paste it onto here but it wouldn't let me for some reason. Eat shit Skeens...I know you're laughing right now.

September 19th - Random Entry
We've actually played a few shows since the Sugar Room extravaganza, but I'm getting real lazy when it comes to updating this thing. Plus, I'm moving again. Anyone who's been paying the slightest bit of attention might think I'm some kind of underground drug lord. I haven't stayed in the same city for more than a year since I graduated high school. Once we get to Columbus, I will have lived in 9 different cities. I think it's 9...maybe 10. I'm tired. I wonder what Bobby is doing right now. Wait, I know, walking in a complete circle, over and over again, twisting his hair into knots. Don't ever try to outstep Bobby, he would bury you fast...one of these days I'm gonna get a Happy Meal from McDonald's so I can get one of those "step counter" thingy's and I'm going to hook it to Bobby's leg. I swear to god, he'd break the world record. He doesn't sit still. You can't even carry on a conversation with him because he never stands still. Right now, I'm totally alone surrounded by partially filled cardboard boxes, old Coors light, and dirty laundry, resting 3 stories above downtown Indianapolis. Tomorrow we take the stage or whatever they have, at Miani's in Columbus. Should be a good time. Drinks are cheap and so will the music by yours truly. Afterwards, I'll make the 3 hour drive back to Indy to attend my day job at 7:00 a.m without a wink of sleep and plenty of stories about going left to center and waking up from a dead sleep behind the wheel. Wish me luck. See you soon. -D

September 2 & 3 - The Sugar Room
It was during my stay in various Minnesota cities that I came to realize that whomever dreamed up the idea of a place called "Hell" and figured it would be all fire consumed and hot, was completely out of their mind because hell is cold. About 42 below to be exact. That kind of cold can't even be described as "cold" anymore because it doesn't chill you...it kills you. Or some would argue that it preserves you, evident by the fact that everyone in Minnesota looks 20 years younger than they actually are. I swear to god when I lived out there my skin regenerated 10 years. I seriously look like I'm 15 now. But anyways, Minnesotans have found a way to combat the cold and make it to the summer. It's called alcohol. They consume it like madmen all across the upper Midwest throughout the winter months in attempts to stay numb until the light at the end of the tunnel...Summer. I could tell you stories all day about my stay there, but until you've stepped outside and thought to yourself "Damn, it's a nice day!" only to look at the temp and see it's still only 17 below...then you won't begin to fathom the temperatures I speak of. It was in this climate that Jakob Freely first took off and built their first "real" fan base. I say "real" because these people applaud after every song, sing the originals, and buy merchandise. When we leave Mankato our heads and egos flare up to ten times their normal size. So yea, great weekend....lots of stories. Bobby was slap happy all weekend...it you saw him you probably mistook him for having smoked a quarter pound of pot. But he was just "tired." I'll let you think about that for a minute. We've got some video footage for everyone, which includes Bobby's Travel Tips. These are tips to keep you from pulling over and wasting time. One of them includes driving with one hand and pissing in a StarBucks frappicino bottle. I think I'm going to buy him a catheter so it won't be as messy. Keep checking back for new pics and video from the trip. I gotta run....sorry if this entry was scatter brained.

August 20th - Many things...
Yea it's been a couple weeks. Either I'm getting completely lazy or...wait, yea I am getting lazy. As I sit here by myself, 2:03 a.m. Indiana time, which if you don't know never changes, I'm thinking about how great a warm bud light really tastes. I can't believe it. How many people, when faced with the decision to drink a warm beer, actually go for it and are content with that decision. I, on the other hand, have to say that from now on I may ONLY drink warm beer. In fact, if you've ever had a warm Pabst Blue Ribbon, then you'll know what I'm talking about. A buddy of ours Shane Avery (one of the few remaining Country Outlaws left), is sponsored by Pabst and he honestly won't touch the stuff if it isn't 2 degrees from boiling point. Don't ask me...just try it, then thank me.

Anyways, instead of constantly writing about show "wrap ups" in here I thought I'd make it more random for awhile. Wait, I think my computer is about to shut off. Ok , it didn't. Sidenote, never spend your precious time browsing the internet for porn. If you do, you'll soon need a new computer. We've had this one for a little over a year and it's on it's last leg. It's infected with so much SpyWare I'm afraid to run through my apartment naked for fear that someone will somehow see me.

We got back from our movie shoot last week. And my sweat glands were in full effect down in Raleigh. I'm telling you, if our music ever gets to the point where some major label thinks it's a good idea to take a chance on us...then I guarantee you as soon as they see us play live they'll think twice after I douse them with my watery signature. Give me a hug and you're going home looking like you fell in a puddle. In fact, a couple months ago we played a show at Pepper's here in Indy and when we finished we were walking out to the parking lot and some guy looked all scared, walked up to me and said, "Dude, what's going on in there? Did someone dump water on you?" And I replied "No, I just got done wrestling a 3,000 pound Bull Moose out front." And he looked at me like that was an appropriate answer...which says a lot about my sweat level. Anyways, no show notes this time...just random late/aftershow drunk speak. Go buy a cd so I can pay my bills.

August 5th - McMurray's Springfield, OH
Ah, the usual evening for JF, but at this point in the game it wasn't so unusual. But, we did get challenged to a fight by an OU Wrestler...I really wish I would've known he was a wrestler or I would't have turned my microphone around to sing my "douchebag" song to him. He was completely wasted and decided he was going to ask me if he could "rock out." When I decided that it wouldn't be a good idea, he decided to take it upon himself to get up onstage and start dancing and mocking us. We've made an example out of people for less, so I decided to let him have it. Later in the night Skeensy stumbled upon him rage vomitting in the bathroom. Anyways, ended up being a good night with Bobby and Josh running through the McDonald's sprinklers at 3:30 a.m. And Josh yelling "Brush your shoulder's off!!!" as loud as he possibly could. We've got some camera phone video...I'll get it up ASAP. Oh yea, thanks again to the DoucheRockets for their short set during one of our breaks. They claimed to be rusty, but I laughed my ass off.

August 4th - The Morning Mess Loft

So Bobby and I decided that since every band goes through their own version of "dodging bullets" or everything going completely sour out of nowhere, we weren't going to talk about it as much anymore. But I'm all about the drama sometimes, plus I'm really bitter right now so here goes. We were scheduled to play at the Morning Mess Loft party for RadioNow 93.1 here in Indy last night. Bobby got a late start so, naturally, he got here late. So in a futile attempt to catch up for lost time, I grab my guitar and run downstairs to hop in the car with him. One problem though, no Bobby. I get a call from him and "Some guy cut him off and he couldn't turn..." so I spend the next 30 minutes chasing where I think he might be in downtown Indianapolis with the 100 degree heat blasting my sweaty ass. And most of you know how much torture 100 degrees is for my sweat glands. Anyways, I finally find Bobby and he can hardly get out of the car and stand because he has to piss so bad. So, now, we're driving around downtown with Bobby yelling out the window and grabbing his "boyz," "Oh my god, I'm going to piss all over the place!!" he's yelling at me. Even though I live downtown I really don't know of anywhere he can piss, but we stumble upon a White Castle and decide that it will do just fine. Now we're later than hell, plus, the freaking Brickyard 400 is going on and downtown looks like 5 minutes from Vietnam. There were cops everywhere, news reporters, helicopters....so it takes us another 30 minutes to weave in an out of the droves of racing fans. Finally parked and at the loft we start to unload...taking trips up the elevator and back down, being sure to keep one person by the car so we don't get towed...and when we finally get set up, check the mics, check the guitars....ooops! The pickup on my guitar is shot out of nowhere. So my guitar won't make a sound. And no one seems to have a backup. After I contemplate jumping out the 4th floor window of the loft, Bobby convinces me that we should at least go back to my place and work on some new material. Which we did. Oh, and we've got enough new material for a full new album. Which we'll start recording next week.

June 10th - McMurray's

Our buddy Bryan Gavin of One Less Distraction got a little taste of the Jakob Freely curse on this night. For a full account of the bullets we dodged or got hit by click here and visit the forum. There's a post by one of our OG E-Team guys Josh Skeens that pretty much sums up the evening.

May 26th & 27th - Dublin Pub/The Gin Mill

The good ol' Dublin Pub. Jesus. We walked in around 9:20. I sat down to wait for Bobby and to talk to a couple of people that drove a couple of hours to see us, and the bar manager approaches me. "Are you guys going to get started soon?" she asks. "Yea, around 9:30 or 10:00," I said. Then she went on to tell me that "we always start at 9:00 here" and then began repeating that over and over like a god damns skipping cd. She finally got herself so worked up that she ended up just telling us to "forget about it" and she canceled the damn gig right then and there. Keep in mind I had been up since 3 a.m. because earlier that morning I was in court in Athens, Ohio...so I was too tired to even blink or I would've just set our shit up anyways and made her call the cops on us. Bobby on the other hand must have smoked some meth or something because he came up in that place like it was the Wild West. He was ripping her ass and freaking out saying shit like, "It's not like your the f@#king Secretary of Defense!! This is a god damn bar your crazy bitch!! it's not like we're fucking terrorists!" And believe me she was a crazy bitch. All the other servers and bartenders told us that she had been recently promoted and she was out to prove something. Well, she got us. One of these days...and I fear sooner than later...I'm gonna snap completely in two and I'm going to burn something down. Maybe the Dublin Pub. Oh god, watch that damn place burn down next week and the cops read this and think I did it. Anywayz, the Gin Mill was subpar. We're still new in that area, so when no one knows who the hell you are, no one is going to come see you. Chris, the bar manager, pretty much paid us out of his own pocket, so we owe him one bigtime. Plus, I told some girl that she could lick the backside of my nuts because she was heckling us. I wonder what she was thinking. Imagine being all drunk, heckling the dudez playing music, and they tell you to "lick the backside of their nuts." Well, she left...so it worked. Talk to you guys soon.

May 21st - O'Hooley's Athens, OH

Dodging Bullets 2005 Tour. This is what we should have named this little tour from the get go. At least then we would have had the mindset that a lot of bad shit was going to happen. Let me fill you in on last night. All in all, the night went well. O'Hooley's was bumpin' with Freelyphiles, we sold an album or two and I thought we sounded pretty good. Some new age Athens Hippies might disagree, but I digress. So here we are, end of the night, taking down the P.A. I decided I'm going to run up the street to get the car and pull it around the block to load out. Well, I ended up getting pulled over for turning on a red light. I didn't have my seatbelt on, I was mildly intoxicated, and above all else, my license is expired. As the cop takes all my information and I'm sitting there on the side of the road contemplating how my life has suddenly been lost in a tailspin of misfortune, I hear someone yelling outside the car. "Ha ha ha, you're f@#cked! And he repeats it a few times over to make sure I hear it. Any other night I would've made good use of the tire iron in the trunk of my car on the dudes' face, but I didn't think the cop would like that very much. So I tuned it out. Long story short, I got a warning for going "right on red," somehow passed the sobriety test, and I have to be in court in Athens, Ohio Thursday morning at 9:30. All the way from Indy. If anyone in Athens is reading this please come to the courthouse with your "Free Freely" signs promptly at 9:30. See you there.

May 14th - CD Release Party

You know, I was planning on writing a glorious journal entry about how great the release party was, and it really was truly great, but everything, in my mind, gets overshadowed by the fact that some stupid fucking douchebag rat skank dirtball mistook my one of my friends for someone else (at least that’s what we think) and attacked him. Our friend, we call him D-nut, is that classic nice guy that never messes with anyone so it shocked they hell out of all of us. The asswipe who attacked him ended up getting taken to jail solidifying my belief that if you want to one day become an Ultimate Fighting Champion, then by all means, move to Chillicothe, OH. I’ve lived in 12 different cities, yes 12, and Chillicothe is the only one where people are so skanky and on edge that they’ll fight you, even if it’s for reasons unknown…like this assbag above who just came out of the woodwork. Case in point, the last 5 shows we’ve played there have ended in a brawl. And we’re a freakin’ acoustic act. It’s not like we’re god damn Cannibal Corpse or something. Other than that night ending brawl, it was a phenomenal evening for us. We sold over 50 albums, got some video, pics, and I attempted to record the show LIVE. We’ll see soon if any of that stuff turns out. Thanks so much to Schooley Station and Paul Pollard for helping us out and playing before us. It really made the night seem a lot bigger. Check back soon for video clips. Bobby and I did a rendition of a “Douchebag” song during soundcheck and we got some clips of my alter ego Big Mike. Holla.

May 9th & 10th - 4 Kegs Bar/Delt House

Well, we just happened to call the 4 Kegs Bar before we left to confirm the gig and we found out that they had us down for a different night. We’ve had this on our schedule since February, Hmm….Anywayz, on to Tuesday night in Morehead. We played an end of the year Reading Day Party at the Delt House at Morehead State. Ok, I went to 4 different colleges during my "tour of Ohio" college experience and trust me, no one "reads" on these days. They should be called Drown Your Face & Semester in Drugs and Alcohol Day. Anyway, before the night started some dude says to me, “This will not be a good night for me unless I go to jail or have sex with somebody.” Bobby and I turned to him and reminded him that “somebody” meant “anything” a dude, chick, child, senior citizen, at which point he hurriedly retracted his statement to confirm that he meant a “girl.” So as the night wore on we began to realize that this wasn’t going to be much of a “bash” (even though the cops showed up) BUT, songs were played, people danced and sang, people drank like Armageddon was 5 minutes away, and Bobby and I got to stay and hang out with our buddy Shorty. Around 3:00 a.m. Bobby opens Shorty’s fridge in a drunken stupor looking for some carcass to gnaw on. “It looks like you’ve got cancer growing in this thing!” I hear as Bobby pulls a Tupperware container from the refrigerator. Then Bobby starts laughing hysterically with food spilling out of his mouth and it ended up creeping some girl out so much that she left the apartment rolling her eyes. Classic Bobby…that’s all I can say. I on the other hand propped my feet up and dry heaved my way through a BP spicy hot burrito, something I’m sure I’ll do again very soon. Bobby and I collectively passed out around 4:00 a.m. woke up at 9:00, decided not to wake the guys that were supposed to pay us, and parted ways once again. Him to Chillitown and me to Indy. Both of which just tied at #22 for dirtiest air in the United States. I thought that was ironic. Maybe not. Talk to you soon…

May 5th - C.J.'s Oxford, OH

We once again booked another show on the last day of everyone being on campus at Miami University in Oxford. What do you think of when I say Oxford? “Polo shirts and Range Rovers,” as one of our Wittenberg friends put it. Well, I’m here to lay that assumption to rest. Bobby and I were scared for our lives as we were playing in front of a huge ass ventilator fan and in about a half-inch deep puddle of beer. This bar that we love to play in, is located in an alley and is probably one of the biggest dive bars we’ve played in. Yet they pay us better than anyone ever and it is absolutely nuts in there. The place is called C.J.’s and I think they have a magnet under the floor that automatically pulls a beer bottle out of your hand and onto the floor, because I’ve never seen so much spilled beer in my life as I have the last couple of times we’ve played there. But it was a great time. A few people requested some originals, a couple fights almost broke out, and at the end of the night the bar manager couldn’t get everyone to leave so he turned on the water hose and employed those riot de-escalation tactics that you’ve seen people use during anti-whatever rallies on TV. It was great. I’ll have the pictures up soon. Maybe tomorrow. By the end of the night, Bobby was so wasted that he was singing some kind of nursery rhyme that he made up about some kid he knew when he was like 8 years old and laughing to himself as we loaded everything in the car. I think they spiked his Bud Light with blotter acid or maybe a silver striped mushroom. Anywayz, for all ya’ll in Oxford, we’ll see you in the Fall. And next time we’re bringing a god damn shank or a lead pipe.

May 4th - McMurray's Springfield, OH

As much as we've been dodging bullets during this little Spring "tour" I have to say this was a night that we could put the neoprene vests in the trunk and not worry about a damn thing. We got to the show without getting stuck in traffic, got set up without any screwups. I forgot my capo, but it wasn't a big deal at all. McMurray's is one of those places that just kind of "gets us" if you know what I mean. There's only like 5 such places out of the 20 or so we play. We've only played at McMurray's twice and the word seems to have spread fairly well. I mean, the first time we played there people showed up with JF Fan Club shirts. Anywayz, it was about 11:00 and I look up in the middle of playing Mr.Wizard and a guy we know and like (let's call him Paul R. Douche) has one of his nuts hanging out of the fly of his pants flopping it around and singing. Then when I made eye contact he told me I was gay. Keep in mind that Paul stands literally at about 6'8" so his testicle resembled an old veiny potato. Not even 10 minutes later and ol' Paul was at it again with his ass hanging out right in the middle of the bar. Shaking it around singing "Please tell me whyyyyyy....." from My Own Worst Enemy. Let me stop here to tell you that it was the last day of classes at Wittenberg so there was plenty of drugs and alcohol running wild in everyone's veins. At one point, Evan B. (Witt people know him) took it upon himself to grab Bobby's mic right in the middle of a song and add his own harmonies to our tunes. A symphony of a thousand deaths would be a good description of how that probably sounded. You know, I think you guys at Witt party harder than most places we've been. And we make that assumption by the amount of beer spilled on the floor, and how many people spilled themselves on the floor. Case in point, the two chicks who bit the dust right in front of us and bashed their faces up against the wall. One of them actually drew blood. I mean, after awhile it felt like fucking escape from Saigon in that place. But we had a great time. Can't wait to see you guys again. Have a happy WittFest. Oh, big ups to The DoucheRockets (that's what Paul said your name was) for their little medley at the end of the night. Bobby and I enjoyed it.

April 30th - High Fest/The Basement
I pulled onto South High Street in Athens, Ohio and the first thing that hits my tired ears is "Nice Hyundai." My wife shakes her head, and neither one of us are in a good mood, but we continue down the block trying to find where the bands are supposed to play. Bobby calls on his cell and starts freaking out, "Dude, I don't know how the hell to get to High Street!" So I make a right on Congress and pull over at an old Armory. After what seems like 30 minutes, Bobby pulls up. We end up walking around for 30 minutes trying to find out where we are supposed to play and no one seems to have a clue. After we research all of High Street we conclude that it was either canceled or someone was messing with us and since we had a show in Columbus in a couple of hours we decided to hit the road. On the way up we stopped at Bob Evans in Logan, Oh and the following events began to unfold: The waiter screwed up the order, Bobby stole my vegetable soup, my wife said I looked like shit, a few people came in with their prom dates, and we found out that Bobby forgot the tickets to the Basement show. To make a long story short we made it to Columbus, had to pay $5 to park, carried our stuff a couple hundreds yards, and then cranked through a 45 minute set. And then, Bobby being himself, spilled my drink all over the Direct Box that I was plugged into, sparking a little tiff with the sound guy. And I began to develop what would become a 101.7 degree fever and a bit of the flu that would wage war on my stomach for the next 3 days. So after a 450 mile loop around the MidWest spanning from Indianapolis to Athens to Columbus and back we ended up pocketing negative $50. So we lost money. Are you still thinking about trying to be a rock star? If you are, get therapy.