CP: Freeman whistles are available again ...

Whistle
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I HAVE WHISTLES AVAILABLE AGAIN …

If you’ve been thinking of getting a Freeman whistle (or even if you haven’t), I’m producing them again and they are available.

The COVID work still takes much of my time but I’m managing to get a good supply of whistles done.

AND I have tweaked Brass D and Eb Generations! I haven’t made these D and Eb Generations for several years. Now I’m happy to say I’m making them again and they’re turning out VERY nice. If you love the pure-drop authentic trad voicing, this whistle has it. I designed the voicing to match as closely as possible the vintage, classic pre-1980s Generations (brighter, purer, more birdlike, less husky sounding than the current Generations).

MELLOW DOG
Wide Body, Pure & Full Voiced:
D Mellow Dog = $49.45
Mellow Dog D/C set (1 top, 2 tonebodies) = $59.45

BLACKBIRD
Sweet & Pure (Depending on availability may come with brass or nickel tonebody. If you have a preference, please specify):
D Blackbird = $42.95
Eb Blackbird = $42.95
C Blackbird = $44.45

BLUEBIRD
Sweet and Pure Generation-Based Voicing (Depending on availability may come with brass or nickel tonebody. If you have a preference, please specify):
D Bluebird = $42.95
Eb Bluebird = $42.95

TWEAKED GENERATION
Classic Traditional Voicing:
Brass D or Eb Generation = $42.95
Bb Tweaked Generation = $42.95 (Depending on availability may come with brass or nickel tonebody. If you have a preference, please specify.)
Bnat Tweaked Generation = $61.95
Alto A Tweaked Generation = $61.95
Tenor G Tweaked Generation = $61.95

POSTAGE
US Priority Mail postage = $9.75
International First Class Parcel Postage = $15.00
Australia First Class Parcel Postage = $19.00

For PayPal use jerry (at) freemanwhistles (dot) com for “recipient.” Please include a PayPal message saying what you are ordering, and please make sure your shipping address in PayPal is correct.
If you prefer to pay by check, message me and I’ll provide my mailing address.

Thanks!


You likely know, the last 12 months I’ve worked mostly full time as an unpaid volunteer helping with the COVID response (I’m a retired medical administrator). That’s why my whistle work stopped for most of this year. I no longer have an eBay store and don’t anticipate listing again on eBay in the foreseeable future. Eventually I’ll build a Freemanwhistles website. In the meantime, I apologize for the inconveniences.

If you’ve ordered from me through eBay and didn’t receive your whistle(s), please message me. I know of a few orders I still have to catch up but I expect there are more I don’t know about (eBay sales records disappear after 90 days). Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and I appreciate your patience.

Heartfelt thanks and best wishes,
Jerry
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D Blackbird

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked D Blackbird whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD61j6IxC8U

Freeman tweaked D Blackbird: American Old Time jam session with whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EcZjHL7_wE

Eb Blackbird

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked Eb Blackbird whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1dKvUc1cGc

Colleen Shanks: Freeman tweaked Eb Blackbird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzjapsl5OoM

C Blackbird

Kathleen Conneely playing a Jerry Freeman tweaked C Blackbird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtowGMwV3A4

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked C Blackbird whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LagJ72yU7Ek

Mellow Dog

Wide-body whistle, bigger sound, takes more push at the top of the upper register. For some who like to lean into a whistle, this is desirable (e.g., Cillian Vallely, who praises the fact that you can play a Mellow Dog more dynamically than with most whistles ). For others, who may prefer a whistle that takes more subtle breath (e.g., Kathleen Conneely), the Blackbirds, Bluebirds and tweaked Generations may be more suited. Most people are comfortable with all of my whistles and easily switch back and forth among them.

NOTE: Keegan’s recording is a better example of what my current Mellow Dogs sound like than Kevin’s. When I sent that whistle to Kevin I was getting a somewhat huskier sound. The Mellow Dogs I’m shipping now are closer to the one Keegan plays.

2013 Keegan Loesel - treetop tune: Freeman tweaked Mellow Dog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOXefFsG43U

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked D Mellow Dog whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-EEDZ7o9-E

D Bluebird

Bluebirds are tweaked with the same specifications as Blackbirds. Based on a Generation whistlehead, they retain some of the Generation character in a whistle that’s voiced significantly purer/sweeter, as you can hear.

In honor of Iarla McMahon, age 10, from County Down, winning the 2014 All Ireland under 12 whistle championship playing a Freeman tweaked Bluebird, L.E. McCullough, 1976 All Ireland Champion in new dance tunes composition, composed this double jig: “Freeman’s Tweaked Bluebird,” which he plays on his own Freeman tweaked Bluebird.

L.E. McCullough’s new tune, “Freeman’s Tweaked (D) Bluebird”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ1wfYVRLsQ

Eb Bluebird

I don’t have a sample of an Eb Bluebird. The D Bluebird sample is representative, though.

D/Eb Generation

Tin Whistle Comparison: Off-the-shelf key of D Generation vs. Freeman Tweaked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcaSxBkXqPg

I don’t have samples of an Eb Generation. The D in the comparison video is representative, however. You can clearly hear the difference in voicing between my tweaked D and the off-the-shelf Generation, and Sean mentions it when he says the off-the-shelf Generation sounds “raspier.”

I’ve voiced my tweaked Generations based on the classic, pre-1980s voicing, which was noticeably purer, more birdlike than current Generations. The video features a bluetop nickel whistle. The difference in sound compared to a redtop brass tweaked Generation will be too subtle to tell from a recording. I would consider that example to be reliable for either brass or nickel tweaked D/Eb Generations.

Bnat Generation

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked Bnat Generation whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EnSs1Nw48g

Bb Generation

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 213 Reel - Vista Falls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzBGg4Opp0U

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked Bb Generation whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP270B9tj4s

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 331 Jig - The Tasty Turkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQpEKHHPzWY

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 174 Reel - The Silver Lake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbXLZM2TTWQ

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 220 Reel - The Morning Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhH8a_JblyQ

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 183 Jig - Billy’s First Steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkktGH1wbis

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 305 Hornpipe - Mad for the medley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ttumw54qM

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 312 Slip Jig - The 7th of November
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNqPvHQlPZE

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 253 Jig - The Northshore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPGzkYU5I4c

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: The High Point Reel (Colin Farrell’s Original Tune a day 2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9-IqvQPGTg

Freeman tweaked Bb Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 199 Jig - The Road to Wembley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxV2GInH1dc

Alto A Generation

Freeman tweaked A Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 244 March/Reel - Return to Maui
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHH_8--RbAM

Freeman tweaked A Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 228 Jig - The Early Start / Reel - The Late Finish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkbdF00RZY

Freeman tweaked A Generation: Colin Farrell’s Tune A Day 2020 Day 346 Reel - The Teapot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKedP_X4B8M

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked alto A Generation whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcCr7qh0y1g

Tenor G Generation

Kevin Crawford demonstrates a Freeman tweaked low G Generation whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oexcOapYzA

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Hi Jerry;

Do you ever just sell the heads? I have a crack in my Generation Bb whistle.

4

You might have better luck sending him a PM or an email directly. He doesn’t seem to check in to the list all that often.

Best wishes.

Steve

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Thanks, done and done

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Patti, let me know what you hear from him… I’d be interested in the answer to that question as well.

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Will post here if I get an answer.

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Thanks!

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I emailed him 5 days ago to place an order and never got a response.

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I placed an order with him when he first posted that the tweaked generation whistles were back in stock. I still haven’t received my order yet. He posted not too long ago that he got ill but was getting better. Still waiting to hear from him about my order.

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I ordered a Mellow Dog D/C set. Haven’t heard a word from him. Hmmmm…

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I hope he’s all right.

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I got a whistle from Jerry just over a month back, we were E-mailing back and forth, hope he’s ok

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I chatted with Jerry a couple of days ago. He just had to have a bit of routine surgery, which went fine. Here’s hoping he’ll be back in action soon. I truly appreciate my stable of Freeman whistles–enough to get duplicates of my favorites, so I’m not afraid of losing or breaking them (also true of my O’Briain & Shush tweaked whistles, as life is chaotic and entropy always wins in the end).

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That’s good news Squid, cheers for updating us I may be after another Freeman whistle when Jerry is back on his feet.

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Any news from or about Jerry?

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I ordered some whistles from him recently by email and he was very responsive. They arrived quickly and play great!

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not that I heard

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Last year when Mr. Freeman was still selling on eBay I bought a couple of his whistles. To make a long story short, after 6 months and many attempts to contact him I did get the whistles I had purchased.

I don’t do FaceBook but my wife does and she found that he has an account so she tried contacting him via this FB acct. After several attempts there I did get a phone call from him and that started the process of me getting the whistles I had paid for.

You might try seeing if he is posting anything to his account. That will tell you if he is ok or not.

20

I’m alive and well, thank you.

Here’s a message I posted yesterday on the Facebook Tin Whistle / Pennywhistle Resource group page:

I’M ACCEPTING WHISTLE ORDERS AGAIN

I’ve finally caught up with the backlog of whistle orders. In two weeks, I’ve completed and mailed 59 whistles.

Please, if you’ve been thinking of ordering a Freeman tweaked whistle, I’ll be grateful if you would.

SCROLL DOWN FOR DESCRIPTIONS AND ORDERING INFORMATION. Sound clips of all the whistles are in the first comment below.

You may know, I lost five weeks productivity because of a tickborne blood infection (anaplasmosis) and then an eye surgery that was postponed because of the infection. I’m fine again and back 100%, thankfully. During that time, I did continue the work supporting COVID-expert doctors.

For more than two months because of the backlog I didn’t solicit new orders. That has caused me to miss payments on two credit cards (I’m still w/in 30 days and will catch them up as orders come in) and use another credit card for Max’s surgery, my medicine, whistle mailing costs, etc.

That has added another almost two thousand dollars to the overwhelming debt that’s accumulated since I started the unpaid COVID work 16 months ago. (I never imagined we’d still be battling this crisis more than a year later!)
Most recently I’ve been working with four of the world’s top experts on at-home treatment of early COVID to get this message into major mainstream media:

PLEASE DON’T LET COVID PATIENTS SICKEN AND DIE NEEDLESSLY
COVID still kills 8,000 people every day (around 2,000 each week in the US). The accumulating evidence is unequivocal. Multidrug treatment, begun early with already available medications, is associated with large reductions in hospitalization and death.

We’ve written (mostly I wrote it, but the combined work of the five of us is an extremely powerful document) an authoritative and comprehensive opinion piece we’re sending around to The New York Times (who not unexpectedly have already passed on it), Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, etc.

The Wall Street Journal has it now. They’ve carried 13 op-eds from the doctors I work with and we’re hopeful they’ll accept this one. If not, we’ll move on and send it to Newsweek or USA Today.

Please send your good thoughts and prayers for this project. If we succeed in getting this information into the mainstream, it will save countless lives. I won’t go into detail as to why the media have ignored such life-saving information, but the inertia has been systematic and VERY difficult to break through.

FREEMAN WHISTLE DESCRIPTIONS AND ORDERING INFORMATION

MELLOW DOG
Wide Body, Pure & Full Voiced:
– D Mellow Dog = $49.45
– Mellow Dog D/C set (1 top, 2 tonebodies) = $59.45

BLACKBIRD
Sweet & Pure (Depending on availability may come with brass or nickel tonebody. If you have a preference, please specify):
D Blackbird = $42.95
Eb Blackbird = $42.95
C Blackbird = $44.45

BLUEBIRD
Sweet and Pure Generation-Based Voicing (Depending on availability may come with brass or nickel tonebody. If you have a preference, please specify):
D Bluebird = $42.95
Eb Bluebird = $42.95

TWEAKED GENERATION
Classic Traditional Voicing:
Brass D or Eb Generation = $42.95
Bb Tweaked Generation = $42.95 (Depending on availability may come with brass or nickel tonebody. If you have a preference, please specify.)
Alto A Tweaked Generation = $61.95
Tenor G Tweaked Generation = $61.95

POSTAGE
US Priority Mail postage = $9.75
International First Class Parcel Postage = $16.00
Australia First Class Parcel Postage = $20.00

If you are able to add some extra to your payment in support of the COVID work, I’ll be grateful. If you’re just able to afford the cost of the whistles, that’s a big help too, and I’m very appreciative.
For PayPal use jerry (at) freemanwhistles (dot) com. Please include a PayPal message saying what you are ordering, and please make sure your shipping address in PayPal is correct.
If you prefer to pay by check, message me and I’ll provide my mailing address.
Thanks!