ARTIST ROSTER:
From humble beginnings in a Michigan industrial city to bright lights on national stages, Stewart Francke’s creative work has transformed the lives of thousands who’ve listened to his songs or read his writing. Since releasing his first album in 1995, Stewart has created a body of work cited by critics as spiritual in tone and remarkable in its emotional breadth. A bone marrow transplant survivor, Stewart has been recognized by the Points Of Light Foundation for his personal work in cancer patient support. The Stewart Francke Leukemia Foundation was presented the prestigious Partnership In Humanity Award by the Detroit Newspapers and he was named Volunteer of the Year by the National Marrow Donor Program. He's been recognized by his peers in his community through numerous Detroit Music Awards, including Best Artist, Songwriter & Album. Hour Detroit readers voted him most popular musician 2003-2005. He was awarded a Creative Artist Grant by Artserve Michigan in 2004.
His first album, Where The River Meets The Bay (1995), contained the hit single, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," made famous through its use as an episode theme for the TV show Melrose Place. In the ensuing eight albums there have been other regional hits, including a duet with Detroit soul legend Mitch Ryder and several songs cut with the Funk Brothers, in what was their last session together. He’s sold over 40,000 copies of his nine albums through independent distribution and marketing.
Although he's performed on bills with the likes of Sheryl Crow, Stevie Winwood, Steve Earle, Eddie Money, Huey Lewis & The News, Shawn Colvin, Hootie & The Blowfish, Chicago, Hall & Oates, Chuck Berry and many others, Stewart regards the night he was invited to perform his own compositions with the Saginaw Symphony in his hometown of Saginaw, Michigan as a singular thrill.
In 2006 Wayne State's Ridgeway Press released a collection of Stewart's lyrics and writing on music, life and Midwestern living titled Between The Ground & God. The book won two 2007 National Indie Excellence Awards, and led to an invitation to read at the New York Book Festival. Stewart’s now working on a new record with renowned soul producers Jon Tiven in Nashville and David McMurray in Detroit.
Stewart Francke lives in Huntington Woods, MI with his wife, Julia, and children.
TESTIMONIALS
“Yea, I’ve heard Stewart Francke...he makes beautiful music.” -- Bruce Springsteen, 2006
“Stewart Francke is one of a kind. A talent that encompasses songwriting and prose writing appears rarely. How much rarer then is a songwriter and writer whose sensibility includes Johnny Cash and Gore Vidal, Yoko One and the Funk Brothers, marriage and mortality, race relations and cancer treatment? His Motor City Serenade is the most important blue eyed soul record in a generation. Standing courageously at the intersection of rock and soul music, influenced equally by Marvin Gaye and Brian Wilson, Francke possesses all the tools: A sweet voice, a vision that’s grand without being grandiose and an undying love of sound for its own sake, along with an equally passionate engagement with everyday life and the people who live it. This music isn’t classic anything only because, like every real artist, Francke takes the world as he knows it and moves on his own course. " -- Dave Marsh, renowned critic and author of The Beatles 2nd Album
"As always, Stewart Francke's passion and raw, soulful singing strength are evident on Swimming In Mercury. Like all the best songwriters, Stewart writes from the heart and sings from it as well. The power of his up tempo tunes and the plaintive emotion of his ballads make for that rarest of musical accomplishments: a great songwriter who can rock!" -- Mitch Albom~Columnist & Best Selling author
"Thank God for Stewart Francke. Thank God for his feeling, healing music, for the sweetness of his soul, the sincerity of his songs, the strength of his vision. Wheel Of Life is enriching, nourishing music -- music as faith, music as celebration, music whose source is clear and joyful love." -- David Ritz, author of Ray, the Ray Charles Story and Divided Soul: The Marvin Gaye Story
"Listening to Stewart Francke's music is like waking up and finding yourself in an alternate universe. It's a place where rock and soul still speak to each other, where you catch glimpses of what the seventies might have become if we'd lived up to their long-forgotten promise. It immerses you in a soundscape where you hear Motown and Philly International communing with Pet Sounds and Fleetwood Mac. It's a good world to imagine, and, Francke promises us, it isn't really out of reach. Part of the sense of promise lies in the music itself. Whether you're coming at the music from rock or soul, you can close your eyes, relax and let it wash over you. When you come back to the world, you'll feel energized and renewed. Like the best music of he rock and soul era, this music believes. It believes that we can reach a higher ground, that the conversations between black and white, between blues realism and gospel redemption, remain as vital as they were before narcissistic irony swamped our shared hopes and dreams. Like Marvin Gaye and Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Ani DiFranco, he knows that, if we find the strength to tell our own stories honestly and the courage to open ourselves to others, our burdens can be a source of hope, not despair. And, he insists, the only meaningful response is to love each other and to change the world. " -- Craig Werner, Gleason-award winning author of Change Is Gonna Come and Higher Ground
ABOUT THE MP3s:
1. Upon Seeing Simone is a duet with my friend and mentor Mitch Ryder. It was a regional hit and has a hip horn chart. Big song for us live.
2. American Twilights was cut with the Funk Brothers and is representative of the Motown feel of what we do.
3. Letter From Ten Green is a letter to my children written in the cancer ward when I didn't think I was going to live. It gets tons of hits on itunes, so it's developing its own little following.
4. Motor City Serenade was also cut with the Funk Brothers and was well received in the UK when it was released there in 2006. We open shows with this one.
5. Into The Mystic is my version of the Van tune and gets more hits on itunes and Rhapsody than any other song of mine. Might be good to develop common ground with buyers.
|
|
