August 22, 1959-August 18, 2025

Evo Bluestein’s thoughts on the passing of his sister.

Growing up as the four children of Gene and Ellie Bluestein there was a strong chance that all of us would play music, though not all families could manage to play together in a family band, which we did for a good ten years or so.

Gene was a professional folksinger before becoming a college professor. His field of American Studies allowed him to continue with his favorite musical pursuits. He was mostly a solo performer, sometimes using many instruments, but he later learned how to be in a band-with his own kids.

Joel was the oldest and I remember him taking violin lessons. Then Mother asked what instrument I would like to study. In hindsight, it was sort of like the trendy psychology of a certain era of progressive parenting. “You can clean up your room or take out the trash. Which would you like to do?” It gave you a sense that you had some choice in the matter– though you were going to work either way.

I realized the question meant I was going to be studying some instrument or other. I chose piano. My younger brother, Jemmy, chose flute and eventually, the youngest and only girl, Frayda, chose piano. At some point she took voice lessons. I don’t remember who with or how long that lasted, but she ended being the best singer in the lot. Her first big role with voice was in the The Sound of Music, at Good Company Players Musical Theater in Fresno. It was the theater that gave a future star named Audra McDonald her start.

After junior philharmonic orchestra, Joel was the first of the four kids to veer into folk music, switching styles from violin to fiddle. During the folk revival of the 1970s, I followed, playing dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, guitar and then fiddle. Jemmy joined in on Irish tin whistle before jumping into mandolin. When our father Gene took a half-year sabbatical in Paris, France, we had our first family fame as Les Bluesteins, performing in French folk clubs and concerts with Dad.

All that was missing was the female vocalist. Frayda was still in high school when we returned and the pressure was on. There was no learning curve with the singing, but we needed her to play guitar. Those big chords can be a challenge when you’re building calluses on your fingers and learning all the chords for the songs we wanted to sing, not to mention a ton of fiddle tunes she had to back up for her three big brothers.

As sometimes happens, if you are lucky, you get inspired by a certain song or piece of music that inspires you to leap over a hurdle in your practice. For Frayda, that song was I’m Gonna Be an Engineer, a long, feminist song written by Peggy Seeger. The chord progression posed the perfect challenges. She performed it solo on one of the Bluestein Family records and also in concert.

By this time, she was able to round out the five-piece family band with Dad and her three brothers. We also enjoyed many concerts as a trio, Frayda, Jemmy, and me. A visiting folk singer, Tony Saletan,  was listening to us revel in our playing and three-part singing. He turned to Dad and said, “I hope you’re shepping all the naches you should be.” Shepping Naches is a Yiddish expression meaning “taking in the joy and pride of the moment,” in this case, to see your children singing and playing this great music together.

Joel was off in college. We began the tradition of annual Bluestein Family concerts where we reunited to rehearse a new show each year. The concerts expressed our broad interest in folk and trending music–Appalachian, Cajun, Reggae, Klezmer, blues, as well as our pleasure in sharing with a public what we thought they would or should be interested in hearing.  It was a great time rehearsing with the family and performing for many people in our community. In addition to the music that people were learning about, part of the draw was a family that could do this thing together. We didn’t quite realize how rare it was. Once during a workshop an audience member asked my father how he got all of us to play together. He said, “It was easy. I told them they couldn’t.” It  wasn’t true, of course, but it reflected the common reality that your children will do the opposite of what you tell them to do.

The concerts and many record albums became a bit challenging as some of us were studying in higher education and living far away. We managed the reunion concerts for quite a while until Joel said, “How about if we have a reunion without the concert?” There was a bit of stress working up a new show each year–often for just one big performance. Occasionally, a close friend would get to witness the myth of the “amazing Bluestein Family” and the brutal process behind the curtain. Though we were sometimes rolling on the floor laughing at jokes and stories, movie reviews, and such, we eventually had to get down to work on the program. Hence, we were the first ones to put out an album entitled Shut Up and Sing, a title later used by several other bands more famous than us.

Some of the great opportunities during that period had to do with Gene’s academic activities. He always brought the country’s most interesting and sometimes very famous folk performers to stay with us and perform at the university and in the community. We became very close with some of those people, sometimes performing and recording with them.

In the 1970s we all became fans of Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks. It was an acoustic, swingy and original sound that was somehow part of the national pop/rock music scene. One of the “lickettes” was the wonderful jazz singer MaryAnn Price who later took Frayda in as a back-up singer in her band MaryAnn Price and the Millionaires. When Frayda first auditioned for her, MaryAnn said, “Frayda, it’s as if we’ve sung together all our lives!”
To which Frayda replied, “We have!” At least, Frayda had been singing with her records for quite a while.

I remember a dinner at my folks’ house while Frayda was visiting from law school. She said to our friend and dinner guest, “Should I become a rock star or pass the bar?” She had the vocal talent to choose her musical direction. Our guest wisely said, “Pass the bar.” Which she did.

Though the family musical activity came to an inevitable end as all of us were going in different directions, having families, and developing our adult lives, we did join our folks for several foreign reunion tours while they were teaching in Japan and China, as well as a tour in Israel.

The pleasure of singing in a family ensemble, with the genetically matched harmonies, and varied repertoire was exciting and challenging. The family music experiences created rich memories that we were lucky to grow up with. All four children went their separate ways, sharing their inherited Bluestein traits and skills with the world.

As a law professor, Frayda won many awards during her time on the UNC faculty, including:

• Coates Term Professor for Outstanding Junior Faculty Achievement (SOG; 1998)
• Term Professorship for Teaching Excellence (SOG; 2004) 
• David Lawrence Distinguished Professorship (SOG; 2014)
• Grainger Barrett Award for Excellence, Government and Public Sector Section (NC Bar Association; 2016)
• Ernest H. Ball Award for Excellence in Municipal Law (NC Ass’n of Municipal Attorneys; 2016)
  • Award renamed the Ernest H. Ball and Frayda S. Bluestein Award (2021)

Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award (UNC; 2022)

Frayda’s  life as a lawyer and professor is summed up in the Raleigh NC News & Observer obituary below. –Evo