In March 2012, Macy Coffey, Joan
Sherman, and Misha Rachlevsky conspired to bring Bob Franke to Russia
for an evening with Chamber Orchestra Kremlin. The evening was a great
success, and Bob, Joan, and Ann Sherman spent 11 days in Russia seeing sites
they'd never seen before.
From the Kennedy Center web site: "The
singer-songwriter is best known for his wise and spiritually generous songs,
along with topical songs sugared with the hilarious."
On May 1, 2010, Bob was interviewed by Dale Connelly of
Heartland Radio and Minnesota Public Radio. There has been some
interest in the lyrics to one of his songs from that appearance, so we've
posted the full lyrics to My Next Drinki??
on the Lyrics Page.
Bob's
Booking Information
Please use the information at the "Get In Touch" page.
Thanks.
Bob's
Big Poster
Bob has a new large poster for use by venues to announce
his concerts. It is a double sized page (11x17), prints in great
color. It is a very large PDF file, so be patient. It will
take a couple of minutes on a broadband connection. We suggest that
you right click on the file name below, then select Save Target As...
Save it on your hard drive, in case you need to print more later.
You don't want to re-load it if you can avoid it.
Read
Scott Alarik's biographical piece about Bob on the Biography Page.
Get Bob's CDs and MP3s and listen to snippets of songs.
All
of Bob's in-stock products are available both as MP3 files and as CDs through
the Nimbit store. Click on the Buy CDs link on the menu to see Bob's link to Nimbit.
They
will also arrive at major mp3 outlets like iTunes, Rhapsody and others within
the next few weeks.
Bob has a new Myspace page, which gives him another
way to reach folks who want to know what he is up to these days. The
following is from Bob:
I've got a new MySpace site--
www.myspace.com/bobfrankespace.
So far, a few streaming songs, new dates, and comments, but I will keep
working on things there. I will investigate putting together a download
store there and keep you all posted if it works out. Meanwhile, please visit
and/or join the service. If you're a songwriter who wants to expand your web
presence, I recommend you go to
www.myspace.com/music and sign up there.
So now you have three ways to check up on Bob's
activities (see menu links):
1. This website
2. The Song Journal, Bob's blog --
musings on a variety of subjects
Also, "The Other Evening InChicago" was on the best of2005 lists ofSusan Forbes Hansen of WFCR Radio in
Amherst, MA; Mike Regenstreif of CKUT,
Montreal; and Ron Olesko of WFUV Teaneck, NJ.
Bob's
Songwriting Workshops -- click on menu link to workshops
See
the article about Bob entitled "Bob Franke: Patience is a Virtue" in the
Spring 2005 issue of Sing Out Magazine.
Bob's blog is
called The Song
Journal (http://www.songjournal.blogspot.com),
and is a way for him to offer "miscellaneous
news and writing by Bob Franke, mostly about songs as a portable art form,
and the process of creating them and enabling them to do their work in the
world."
In 2003, Kathy Mattea covered Bob's song
"Straw Against the Chill" on her second Christmas album, "Joy
For Christmas Day."
In the spring of 2004, Peter, Paul and Mary released "Alleluia, The
Great Storm Is Over" on their CD "In These Times."
"It's his integrity. I always
think of Bob as if Emerson and Thoreau had picked up acoustic guitars and gotten into
songwriting. There's touches of Mark Twain and Buddy Holly in there, too."
Tom Paxton
"While fans from Claudia Schmidt to June Tabor may
have...incredible taste in picking songs...when they sing Massachusetts-based
Bob Franke's tunes, neither they nor anyone else can come close to the emotional
(and spiritual) depth Franke brings to his understated songs of the heart, from
'Hard Love' to 'The Great Storm Is Over'. He continues also to dig into Robert
Johnson's blues, and songs that offer hilarious uses of everything from bicycle
repair to computers as metaphors for sex. In the folk singer-songwriter realm,
Franke is simply the best."
Express, Berkeley, California
"In the folk
singer-songwriter realm, Franke is simply the best."
Larry Kelp,
Express, Berkeley, CA
" . . . a
singer-songwriter unsurpassed for his lyrical grace . . . one of our
wisest and most spiritually graceful songwriters"
The Boston Globe,
Boston, MA
"...a standard of songs that most writers can only dream
about, and admire in drop-jawed silence"
