The Freeloaders
Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Music
Press
Anchored by a solid rhythm section of guitarist Wallace Mullinax, bassist Oliver Goldstein, and a tag-team drum duo of Stuart White and Jack Burg, local band the Freeloaders have been polishing a set of fiery instrumentals and groove-heavy tunes for several years. They turned heads as one of the stand-out daytime acts of the recent Awendaw Green Music Festival. They regularly collaborate with local vocalist Elise Testone (who’s busy this week hosting her James Brown Dance Party gig as well). Their mix of styles is tricky to define. In a press release, they say, “imagine if Led Zeppelin had signed with Motown…raw Zeppelin power mixed with cool Motown swagger. This type of blessed union is embodied by the Freeloaders.” So persuasive is their absorption and utilization of vintage funk and fusion traditions, it makes defining them in a quick phrase almost seem silly. —T. Ballard Lesemann
- The Charleston City Paper
Don’t let the slack moniker fool you, when The Freeloaders come to Pawleys Island this weekend they’ll be working hard to earn their keep. With back-to-back shows Friday and Saturday, the band will mark its third year in a row of performing at the Pawleys Island Tavern for New Year’s Eve.
Beginning at 9 p.m. Friday, the band will bring its unique blend of classically-influenced instrumentation and powerful female vocals to the stage, ringing in the new year with three sets of rock, funk and soul.
“We’re expecting this to be the best year yet,” said bassist Oliver Goldstein. “We have lots of friends that make the trip with us and they keep coming back year after year because the PIT is such a great environment. Its just a good place to be on New Year’s and a great place to hear music.”
Though the New Year’s gig has become one of the band’s favorites, the show is just one of many the Charleston-based band has played in the area.
“We’ve been playing the PIT ever since we started. I’m pretty sure it was the first real out-of-town gig we ever had.” he said. “It’s pretty much like our second home.”
Goldstein says his band loves playing in Pawleys Island because it has much the same laid-back feel as Charleston and because the fans really appreciate music there. The Freeloaders also play Murrells Inlet somewhat often, an area Goldstein describes as a good place for music, but with more of a tourist vibe.
Making the band
The Freeloaders were born from a love of music shared by two budding musicians from the same hometown. The two, Goldstein and Mullinax hadn’t interacted until congregating with the same group of friends while attending college.
They began playing together, along with some others including Cre Moore and Will Evans, and eventually formed a band.
“At first it was just informal jamming with some friends, but then as we got some songs under our belt we started looking for a singer, because that wasn’t any of our strong suits,” said Goldstein.
After playing with their original singer for about a year, the band hit a turning point when Goldstein and Mullinax met singer Elise Testone at the wedding of Moore’s brother.
“We just got to talking around the same time we were parting ways with our first singer, Andrea, and found out she was in sort of the same place we were.” said Goldstein.” She was doing a lot by herself and with jazz trios and things at the time, but was looking for a band to get together with and things just kind of worked.”
From there, despite losing Moore and Evans who headed to L.A. to make a record with another project, the band has really solidified its classic rock-influenced sound with its three core members, Goldstein on bass, Mullinax on guitar and Testone singing.
To round out its live sets The Freeloaders enlists a rotating group of drummers including Jack Burg, Stuart White and on occasion Moore, who will sit in with the band when he’s in town.
But despite all the shuffling and changing lineup, Goldstein says the goal remains the same in taking the various influences of its members and combining it into something that sounds cohesive.
“We started off real informal and jam band-ish with lots of different influences, but as the thing boiled down we incorporated all of that and also worked to isolate them,” says Goldstein. “We have songs that are funk tunes, some that are straight-up rock, and others that are more R&B and Motown-ish.”
Doing it live
For those considering coming to see The Freeloaders live, expect a high-energy effort which leans heavily on classic tunes such as those by Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.
“We love Zeppelin, and we’re lucky to be able to do it, because there’s not a lot of male vocalists that can really hit Robert Plant, but Elise definitely can,” says Goldstein.
In addition to a heavy dose of rock, the band plans to fuse covers of classic blues, soul, and r&b tunes as well as peppering in some of their own original material throughout. Its an experience he says can be enjoyed by musical novices and hardcore fans alike.
“We are very fortunate to have some amazing talents in Wallace and Elise,” he says. “Everywhere we go folks are blown away by these guys. When they step out and do their thing together its definitely something special.”
In addition, to the show on stage, Goldstein says there’s always the possibility of some additional excitement breaking out.
“This past New Year’s we were playing ‘Little Wing’ by Jimi Hendrix and there was this one light that had been bothering Elise. She went to go adjust the light ever so slightly and when she did the entire light and the stand it was hanging on just came crashing down.”
“At the same time someone in the crowd fell as well and coincidentally all of our sound went off at the same time, except for Wallace who just pushed through doing this amazing, dramatic solo. After that we just went off stage for about 5 minutes and when we came back folks just acted like nothing had ever happened.”
“I think that’s a perfect example of why Pawleys Island is such a great laid-back place to play,” he said.
- Listen Up Myrtle Beach
Music Board
Music
Elise Testone & The Freeloaders
Local vocalist and frontlady Elise Testone and her party band The Freeloaders have a full weekend. Testone is a cool act with a strong voice and broad range. She performs regularly with funk band Emotive, soul/groove band Art of Soul, and in a duo with pianist Gerald Gregory. The Freeloaders features guitarists Will Evans and Wallace Mullinax, bassist Oliver Goldstein, and drummer Cre “Skintight” Moore. They handle a jazzy mix of soul/funk and classic rock and pop. They sound like the Isley Brothers jamming with The Emotions and Aretha Franklin on the set of The Blues Brothers. —T. Ballard Lesemann
- The Charleston City Paper
McDermott’s Irish Pub. Thanksgiving Eve. Florence was filled to the gills and the night was ripe for something a little different. No ‘90s alternative rock medleys, hold the southern rock revues, put the acoustic folkiness on layaway.
Once Elise Testone, lead vocalist for Charleston-based music group The Freeloaders, drew out her first sultry blues note in a manner that would make John Lee Hooker’s eyes’ damp with pride, time stopped.
Behind her was a band most protean indeed, morphing from funk to classic rock to extended jazz freestyles that stretch to ten minutes, yet no one wanted them to stop.
Then, it was a shred fest between guitarists Wallace Mullinax and Will Evans.
Quite a ride for one song.
The Freeloaders are a Florence group so to speak. Oliver Goldstein (bass), Wallace Mullinax and Cre Moore (drums) all went to high school together
After graduation they went their separate ways. Some to Columbia to attend USC, where they met Will Evans. Others went to Charleston, where they met Elise Testone.
Evans and Moore brought heavy metal to Testone’s soul and jazz to Goldstein and Mullinax’s classic rock. Out of that rose penchants for funk, for blues, for anything really. The one thing everyone seems to have in common, said Mullinax, is that they like a bit of everything.
Of course, they have their preferences. It’s not hard to spot. Testone’s voice was clearly raised on ‘60s and ‘70s R&B and soul. Mullinax and Evans seem to honor John Scofield with sly, voluble runs up and down the fret board. Moore resists the urge to double kick on the bass drum, but his hard down beats and flailing sticks make it no surprise that he drummed for a Mötley Crüe tribute band prior to The Freeloaders.
The group began the night with “Musicology” by Prince: a heavy bass sandwich supported by Testone’s vocals slow and cunning like a cobra sneaking between guitar hits to strike with the force of a crooning sax riding a low note until it can go no more.
The Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post” was next and featured a guitar brawl between Evans and Mullinax not sanctioned by WWE, but certainly a contest of the highest caliber between dueling electrics, cutting through frets like Emeril cuts through onions.
A Freeloaders original song, “Damn These Blues” was a twisting and writhing blues tune that saw Testone grabbing the microphone like she was being shot with 1.21 gigawatts of electricity.
She backed up a bit for the cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, but not too much. The entire band never let up too much. James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” was stretched to maximum capacity, turning out every riff, chord, solo or bend possible out of the song.
The outlook for the band’s future is positive, but a bit busy. Both Mullinax and Goldstein are in school full-time, Testone works full-time and Evans is in Los Angeles for a majority of the year playing with a band called Stereo Reform, who joined The Freeloaders at the Thanksgiving Eve show.
- The Florence Morning News/ Eight Days a Week
It sucks how blues bands that are talented like The Freeloaders get lumped in with those hacky sack toolbag bands. This South Carolina-based band takes its Janis Joplin-like lead singer and adds a mix of blues, funk, and rock to create ear candy for anyone looking to be back in the “summer of love” days. They will be playing the Cornelia Street Café in NYC on Sept. 23, Sullivan Hall in NYC on Sept. 24, and for free at Jigg’s Corner Music Saloon in Butler, NJ, on Sept. 26 and 7. myspace.com/freeincharleston. - The Aquarian
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
The Freeloaders are composed of a group long time friends who have shared a love of music for many years.
Wallace studied under Steve Watson in Greenville, SC, among others, and attended the Berklee summer music program where he acheived a prime spot as the lead guitarist for the jazz fusion performance ensemble. Wallace has been/is in bands such as Tootie and the Jones, Floydian Slip,and The Big Naturals.
Oliver grew up in the same town as Wallace and the pair was introduced during the early, formative junior high years. They became good friends together, always discussing their new listening favorites. Together, they have watched and influenced each others' musical progression, and continue to do so with a constant search for new inspiration as a shared passion.
So when these musical beings ended up in Charleston, SC together they began playing as much as possible, playing the songs they loved by the artists who shaped their musical lives.
Soon the boys decided they needed to find a singer with some serious soul to match there sound. By luck, they met Elise Testone at a performance. Months later their paths would cross again and a harmonious union was made. Elise Testone is a graduate of the Coastal Carolina music department, being one of the only students to undertake the opera and vocal performance route. Trained in the wicked ways of jazz, she has been amazing every audience she encounters for years. Her phrasing is remarkable, rivaling that of the old school jazz legends. Her voice is gargantuine, filling up cavernous rooms with ease; and her style is unparalleled. So when these two got together, they knew they had something amazingly fun and unique. The group has played extensively around the Charleston area at venues such as the Windjammer, the Roadhouse, the Silver Dollar, and the Map Room as well as at Pavlov's in Columbia,SC, and the Pawley's Island Tavern in Pawley's Island, SC. They have also played the Atlanta Blues festival and some other smaller festivals.
We play a mixture of rock, funk, blues, and a touch of jazz joined together by well manicured improvisation. Within this we have a mixture of unique covers and originals.
Our inspiration comes from artists such as John Scofield, Soulive, Lettuce, Medeski Martin and Wood, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, James Brown, Funkadelic, Motown, John Coltrane, Sly and the Famly Stone, and ALL kinds of blues and soul.
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