Album Notes

Bob Franke $15.00
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Bob Franke
The Other Evening In Chicago
(Waterbug, 2005)


"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."
-Larry Kelp, Express, Berkeley, California

" . . . a singer-songwriter unsurpassed for his lyrical grace . . . one of our wisest and most spiritually graceful songwriters"
The Boston Globe, Boston, MA

The Other Night in Chicago was recorded live in Chicago at WFMT's "Folkstage" program, hosted and produced by Rich Warren. In addition to containing most of Franke's enduring favorites - "The Great Storm Is Over," "Hard Love", "For Real", "Thanksgiving Eve", and "A Still Small Voice" - his introductions capture his humor and reveal a personal side to the material that make this collection a self-portrait. Bob Franke (it rhymes with "Yankee") began his career as a singer-songwriter in 1965 while a student at the University of Michigan. He was one of the first people to perform at the now famous Ark Coffeehouse in Ann Arbor. Upon graduation in 1969 with an A.B. in English Literature, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has since made New England his home.
Bob's songs are considered classics, fueled by his deep faith and the real-life lessons taught him by his 30-odd years of playing everywhere from concert halls to street corners. Bob has appeared in concert at coffeehouses, colleges, festivals, bars, streets, homes and churches in 33 states, four Canadian provinces and England. His concerts have appeared in lists of the top five musical events of the year chosen by critics in the Boston and San Francisco Bay areas. In 1990, he was nominated as an Outstanding Folk Act by the Boston Music Awards.
Among his live radio credits are A Prairie Home Companion, A Mountain Stage, Our Front Porch, Sandy Bradley's Potluck, Folk Scene, West Coast Weekend, and Bound for Glory.