{{Short description|American folk singer-songwriter (1947–2025)|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{distinguish|Bob Frank}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Bob Franke | birth_date = {{birth date|1947|7|25}} | birth_place = Hamtramck, Michigan, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|10|16|1947|7|25}} | death_place = Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala | label = {{flatlist| *Flying Fish *Great Divide *Daring *Telephone Pole *Waterbug *Fretless *Not On Label}} | genre = {{flatlist| *American folk music}} | occupation = {{flatlist| *Musician *songwriter}} | instruments = {{flatlist| *Vocals *guitars *banjo}} | website = {{URL|www.bobfranke.com/}} }}
'''Bob Franke''' (July 25, 1947 – October 16, 2025) was an American folk singer-songwriter.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M1172 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929084238/http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M1172 |archive-date=2012-09-29 |title=Bob Franke Performing at the Kennedy Center |last= |first= |date=June 29, 2000 |website=kennedy-center.org |publisher= |access-date=2022-08-22 |quote= }}</ref>
==Life and career== Franke began his career in 1965, while a student at the University of Michigan, and performed at The Ark, a coffeehouse in Ann Arbor.<ref name=center>{{cite web|url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=9851&source_type=B|title=Bob Franke|publisher=Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts|accessdate=December 30, 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929084144/http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=9851&source_type=B|archivedate=September 29, 2012}}</ref>
After graduating from Michigan in 1969 with a degree in English literature, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts<ref name=center/> to attend Episcopal Theological School. He left school to pursue a musical career, and has lived in New England ever since, residing in Peabody, Massachusetts.<ref name=center/>
In addition to his performing career, he taught songwriting workshops and in 1990, wrote a set of songs for a ballet based on ''The Velveteen Rabbit''. In 1999, the young adult novel ''Hard Love'' by Ellen Wittlinger, in which Franke's song of the same name features heavily, was published. Many of his songs have been covered by other artists, including Kathy Mattea, June Tabor, Garnet Rogers, Claudia Schmidt, John McCutcheon, Peter, Paul and Mary, and others.<ref name=LA/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sdfolkheritage.org/?q=node/356|title=Bob Franke|publisher=San Diego Folk Heritage|accessdate=December 30, 2010}}</ref> His song "Thanksgiving Eve" was covered by Isaac Guillory on the album ''Slow Down'' in 1992.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slow Down / Isaac Guillory / January 3, 1992 |website=Amazon music |url=https://www.amazon.com/Slow-Down-Isaac-Guillory/dp/B07DDCZYLK |access-date=January 9, 2021}}</ref> Four of Franke's songs are included in the folk song collection ''Rise Up Singing'': "Beggars to God", "The Great Storm Is Over", "Hard Love" and "Thanksgiving Eve". Franke, a liberal Christian, often covers spiritual and personal themes in his songwriting.<ref name=LA>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-26-ca-32764-story.html|title=The Franke Truth|author=Roos, John|date=March 26, 1998|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=December 30, 2010}}</ref> His song "Alleluia, the Great Storm Is Over" was written shortly after his young daughter's orthopedic condition was diagnosed, and he has said that he composed the song while working at a chocolate factory, and that the rhythm of the song was based on the rhythm of the machines. "Love Bravely, Elizabeth" is addressed to the same daughter, and the songs on his album ''The Desert Questions'' were written after his divorce. Some of his writing is political. The song "Kristallnacht Is Coming" on his album ''The Heart of the Flower'' draws parallels between the Holocaust and Americans' attitudes towards immigrants during the 1990s and "El Niño" (on ''The Desert Questions'') protests Proposition 187.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1997-01-18-3136789-story.html |title=Bob Franke Cuts To Heart Of The Matter With His Songwriting |last=Gehman |first=Geoff |date=Jan 17, 1997 |website=mcall.com |publisher=The Morning Call |access-date=2022-08-22 |quote=He wrote "Krystallnacht Is Coming" the day after Californians voted to deny education and non-emergency health care to children of illegal immigrants. Proposition 187 is "a bad solution to a law-enforcement problem," insisted Franke from his home in Peabody, Mass. "It uses children as hostages; it creates a criminal class of children." Franke borrowed the first-verse monologue from a former fellow factory worker, a German native who insisted, "We never wanted to kill Jews, we just wanted them away." He echoes this blithe rationalization in warnings that Prop 187 is a cruel, poorly disguised immigration policy, verses sung with disarming gentleness. }}</ref>
His 1989 album ''Brief Histories'' has as its theme the history of Salem, Massachusetts, with songs about the witch trials, the Salem Willows amusement park, and Alexander Graham Bell.
Franke died from a heart attack on October 16, 2025, at the age of 78. He had been recovering from injuries suffered when he was hit by a speeding motorcycle while crossing the street near his new home of Antigua, Guatemala, where he and his wife had relocated earlier that year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Just weeks after retiring, local folk musician struck by motorcycle, dies in Guatemala |url=https://marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/10/17/just-weeks-after-retiring-local-folk-musician-struck-by-motorcycle-dies-in-guatemala/ |access-date=21 October 2025 |publisher=Marblehead Current |date=17 October 2025}}</ref>
==Discography== * ''Love Can't Be Bitter All the Time'' (Fretless, 1976) (out of print) * ''One Evening in Chicago'' (Great Divide, 1982) * ''For Real'' (Flying Fish, 1986) * ''Brief Histories'' (Flying Fish, 1989) * ''In This Night'' (Flying Fish, 1991) * ''The Heart of the Flower'' (Daring, 1995) * ''Long Roads, Short Visits'' (Daring, 1997) * ''The Desert Questions'' (Telephone Pole, 2001) * ''The Other Evening in Chicago'' (Waterbug, 2005) * ''Until We Must Part'' (Telephone Pole, 2017) * ''Meditations on the Passion'' (tribute) (Not On Label, 2022)
==Miscellaneous== * ''Marblehead Grows: A Harvest Folk Cantata'' (w/ Maria Sangiolo) (Not On Label, 1996)
==See also== * ''Rise Up Singing''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{discogs artist|Bob Franke}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Franke, Bob}} Category:1947 births Category:2025 deaths Category:American folk musicians Category:American male singer-songwriters Category:Fast Folk artists Category:Musicians from Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:Musicians from Cambridge, Massachusetts Category:People from Peabody, Massachusetts Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:People from Hamtramck, Michigan Category:Singers from Detroit Category:Waterbug Records artists Category:Flying Fish Records artists Category:Singer-songwriters from Michigan Category:Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts
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