Album Notes

Black Hat is a musical toybox for grown-ups, combining folk, pop, rock, jazz and the occasional classical masterpiece with intelligent lyrics from a real-life perspective. Frankie the K, whose passions include bowdlerizing Procol Harum and smashing other people's guitars, originally played in the respected Detroit band Badge in the late 1960's and 1970's, before rediscovering the joys of Chopin and Mozart in the 1980's. Frankie the K is the keyboardist, lead vocalist and co-songwriter for BLACK HAT.

Dr. Jim Hart is a long time Detroit musician, community activist, professor of everything and general trouble maker. Although he originally hails from the East Coast, he's all Detroit now. When he's not beating on the drums he's teaching for Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies. As a drummer, he built his reputation as a funky, jazzy percussionist with numerous local and national acts. He and Frankie teamed up in the late 1990s to form the blues/funk group, big SHORTY. Hart also performs with the swing band Cats Pajamas.

Dr. Caroline Maun earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee. She then made a detour to Baltimore, and was ultimately sucked into Detroit where the fickled-foot-of-fate introduced her to both Frankie and Jim. A master lyricist, she is the author of a book of poetry ("The Sleeping"; Marick Press, 2006). While injecting her sophisticated dry Martini humor into the mix, a new group was spawned. Sort of like the Three Musketeers, the band pursues a delicate balance between musical debauchery and pragmatism, resulting in a listener's experience bordering on Tweets (Twitter Tips) with a splash of velvet lounge.