Bob Franke | |
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Born | Hamtramck, Michigan, U.S. | July 25, 1947
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Website | http://www.bobfranke.com |
Bob Franke (born July 25, 1947, in Hamtramck, Michigan) is an American folk singer-songwriter. [1]
He began his career in 1965, while a student at the University of Michigan, and performed at The Ark, a coffeehouse in Ann Arbor. [2]
After graduating from Michigan in 1969 with a degree in English literature, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts [2] to attend Episcopal Theological School. He left school to pursue a musical career, and has lived in New England ever since, currently residing in Peabody, Massachusetts. [2]
In addition to his performing career, he teaches songwriting workshops and in 1990, wrote a set of songs for a ballet based on The Velveteen Rabbit . In 1999, the young adult novel Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger, in which Franke's song of the same name features heavily, was published. Many of his songs have been covered by other artists, including Kathy Mattea, June Tabor, Garnet Rogers, Claudia Schmidt, John McCutcheon, Peter, Paul and Mary, and others. [3] [4] His song "Thanksgiving Eve" was covered by Isaac Guillory on the album Slow Down in 1992. [5] Four of Franke's songs are included in the folk song collection Rise Up Singing : "Beggars to God", "The Great Storm Is Over", "Hard Love" and "Thanksgiving Eve".
Franke, a liberal Christian, often covers spiritual and personal themes in his songwriting. [3] His song "Alleluia, the Great Storm Is Over" was written shortly after his young daughter's orthopedic condition was diagnosed, and he has said that he composed the song while working at a chocolate factory, and that the rhythm of the song was based on the rhythm of the machines. "Love Bravely, Elizabeth" is addressed to the same daughter, and the songs on his album The Desert Questions were written after his divorce. Some of his writing is political. The song "Kristallnacht Is Coming" on his album The Heart of the Flower draws parallels between the Holocaust and Americans' attitudes towards immigrants during the 1990s and "El Niño" (on The Desert Questions) protests Proposition 187. [6]
His 1989 album Brief Histories has as its theme the history of Salem, Massachusetts, with songs about the witch trials, the Salem Willows amusement park, and Alexander Graham Bell.
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his father, Woody Guthrie. Guthrie's best-known work is his debut piece, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a satirical talking blues song about 18 minutes in length that has since become a Thanksgiving anthem. His only top-40 hit was a cover of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans". His song "Massachusetts" was named the official folk song of the state, in which he has lived most of his adult life. Guthrie has also made several acting appearances. He is the father of four children, who have also had careers as musicians.
The Band was a Canadian-American rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1967. It consisted of Canadians Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, and American Levon Helm. The Band combined elements of Americana, folk, rock, jazz, country, influencing musicians such as George Harrison, Elton John, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton and Wilco.
Randall Evan Stonehill is an American singer and songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the pioneers of contemporary Christian music. His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but some of his albums have focused on new wave, pop, pop rock, roots rock, and children's music.
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 27, 1963, by Columbia Records. Whereas his self-titled debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, this album represented the beginning of Dylan's writing contemporary lyrics to traditional melodies. Eleven of the thirteen songs on the album are Dylan's original compositions. It opens with "Blowin' in the Wind", which became an anthem of the 1960s, and an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary soon after the release of the album. The album featured several other songs which came to be regarded as among Dylan's best compositions and classics of the 1960s folk scene: "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".
The Times They Are a-Changin' is the third studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released on February 10, 1964, through Columbia Records. Whereas his previous albums, Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, combined original material and cover songs, this was the first to feature only original compositions. The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely arranged ballads concerning issues such as racism, poverty, and social change. The title track is one of Dylan's most famous; many feel that it captures the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.
Isaac Guillory was an American folk guitarist.
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Gordon Scott Kennedy is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee whose most successful composition is the international hit song "Change the World", recorded by Eric Clapton, for which Kennedy and his co-writers received a Grammy Award for Song of the Year (1996). Kennedy also received a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album (2007), co-producing, composing, and performing on Peter Frampton's Fingerprints album. He was a member of the Christian rock band White Heart for six years in the 1980s. Kennedy has written 15 songs recorded by Garth Brooks, and has done projects with Frampton and Ricky Skaggs. Kennedy's songs have been recorded by artists including Bonnie Raitt, Alison Krauss, Stevie Nicks, Faith Hill, and Carrie Underwood. His compositions have been heard in the film soundtracks of Tin Cup, For Love of the Game, Where the Heart Is, Almost Famous, Summer Catch, Someone Like You, The Banger Sisters, Phenomenon and Disney's The Fox and the Hound 2.
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Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, when songs such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. Initially modeling his style on Woody Guthrie's folk songs, Robert Johnson's blues and what he called the "architectural forms" of Hank Williams's country songs, Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.
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Rosemary "Rosie" Hardman is a British folk singer-songwriter, musician and performer, best known for such recordings as Lady For Today, Pride of the River, Song to the Evening Sky, and Tongue Tied. Hardman was one of the mainstays of the Manchester folk scene in the 1960s, and performed extensively in both the UK and internationally until 1991.
He wrote "Krystallnacht Is Coming" the day after Californians voted to deny education and non-emergency health care to children of illegal immigrants. Proposition 187 is "a bad solution to a law-enforcement problem," insists Franke from his home in Peabody, Mass. "It uses children as hostages; it creates a criminal class of children." Franke borrowed the first-verse monologue from a former fellow factory worker, a German native who insisted, "We never wanted to kill Jews, we just wanted them away." He echoes this blithe rationalization in warnings that Prop 187 is a cruel, poorly disguised immigration policy, verses sung with disarming gentleness.