Biography
Bob Franke's intention to enter the priesthood shifted when he chose instead to pursue a path as a singer and songwriter. Across the years that followed, however, his compositions continued to embody the spiritual convictions formed early in life. Although his fingerstyle acoustic approach and introspective verse align with longstanding singer-songwriter conventions, the integration of scriptural references and a Christian perspective imparts a distinctive character to his work. That capacity to examine ethical concerns without descending into sermonizing or rigid doctrine has led numerous folk-oriented performers to interpret his material, among them Claudia Schmidt, Tony Rice, Lui Collins, June Tabor, John McCutcheon, David Wilcox, Garnet Rogers, and Peter, Paul and Mary, who have recorded such pieces as “The Great Storm Is Over,” “For Real,” “Thanksgiving Eve,” and “Beggars to God.”
Born in Hamtramck, Michigan—a municipality encircled by Detroit—Franke received his first guitar at fourteen and soon afterward began composing original songs. While studying English literature at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and completing his bachelor’s degree, he immersed himself in the city’s expanding folk scene; in 1965 he became one of the inaugural performers at the Ark coffeehouse. Relocating to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1969 to enroll at Episcopal theological school, he also appeared regularly as a street singer in Boston Commons. After departing the seminary in the early 1970s, he refined his stagecraft further, issuing the debut studio album Love Can't Be Bitter All the Time in 1976 and the live set One Evening in Chicago in 1983.
Franke became closely involved with the Church of St. Andrew in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where he established the weekly folk venue Saturday Night in Marblehead and created multiple cantatas and hymns for congregational use. In 1990 he supplied original songs for an ODC Dance Company of San Francisco staging of The Velveteen Rabbit; two years later the Song Project released the collection The Songs of Bob Franke. The thirtieth anniversary of his professional start was marked in 1996 by a concert at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater featuring interpretations by Tom Paxton, Noel Paul Stookey, Jack Hardy, Lui Collins, Geoff Bartley, and Lorraine & Bennett Hammond. He has sustained an active schedule of performances and recordings into the new century, releasing The Desert Questions in 2001 and The Other Evening in Chicago in 2005.
Born in Hamtramck, Michigan—a municipality encircled by Detroit—Franke received his first guitar at fourteen and soon afterward began composing original songs. While studying English literature at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and completing his bachelor’s degree, he immersed himself in the city’s expanding folk scene; in 1965 he became one of the inaugural performers at the Ark coffeehouse. Relocating to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1969 to enroll at Episcopal theological school, he also appeared regularly as a street singer in Boston Commons. After departing the seminary in the early 1970s, he refined his stagecraft further, issuing the debut studio album Love Can't Be Bitter All the Time in 1976 and the live set One Evening in Chicago in 1983.
Franke became closely involved with the Church of St. Andrew in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where he established the weekly folk venue Saturday Night in Marblehead and created multiple cantatas and hymns for congregational use. In 1990 he supplied original songs for an ODC Dance Company of San Francisco staging of The Velveteen Rabbit; two years later the Song Project released the collection The Songs of Bob Franke. The thirtieth anniversary of his professional start was marked in 1996 by a concert at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater featuring interpretations by Tom Paxton, Noel Paul Stookey, Jack Hardy, Lui Collins, Geoff Bartley, and Lorraine & Bennett Hammond. He has sustained an active schedule of performances and recordings into the new century, releasing The Desert Questions in 2001 and The Other Evening in Chicago in 2005.
Albums