Bob Franke to play uNi’s ‘Thanksgiving Eve’ show
Date: 11/4/2011
October 31, 2011SPRINGFIELD – The uNi Coffeehouse Concert Series will present a “Thanksgiving Eve” concert by Bob Franke on Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Society Meetinghouse, 245 Porter Lake Drive.
Franke has been called New England’s finest philosophical songwriter.
His songs range from poetically insightful to outrageously funny, plus great blues accompanied by his National steel resonator guitar.
His lyrics always touch something deep within the listener – often the heart, the mind, or the spirit – sometimes the funny-bone.
His contemporary anthems like “Thanksgiving Eve” and “The Great Storm Is Over” are now classics on the folk music concert circuit and beyond. “Thanksgiving Eve” was chosen as one of the Top 50 Songs of the Century by SingOut! magazine.
His songs have resonated to untold thousands of listeners as many other performers, including Peter, Paul, and Mary, made them standard components of their own concerts and recordings.
Tom Paxton said of Franke, “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.”
Since 1965, Franke has sung his songs 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.
He has performed on radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and “A Mountain Stage” as well as on 10 albums of his own work.
Over the years he has also been commissioned to produce a variety of musical works, from a set of songs for a ballet of “The Velveteen Rabbit” to song sets on historical themes, including the Salem witch trials.
