Stewart Francke

Detroit-based singer/songwriter Stewart Francke has been proudly recording personal folk-pop music since the early '90s, but was performing long before. Francke joined as the bassist in a local blues band when he was 19, playing the blues while the rest of his age group was experimenting with the punk and new wave sounds of the late '70s. The next ten years were spent in touring bar bands, highlighted by opening gigs for Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Luther Allison. The musician eventually settled down, getting married and working as a journalist until, in 1995, Franke released an independent CD called Where the River Meets the Bay, featuring the soulful "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," which ended up being used in an episode of Melrose Place. Every year since has seen the release of a new album, including Expecting Heroes (1996), House of Lights (1997), and Sunflower Soul Serenade (1998). His courageous fight with leukemia in 1998 encouraged the guitarist to lend his talents toward raising cancer awareness and he became the threads running through 1999's Swimming in Mercury and 2000's What We Talk of...When We Talk. Inspired by the flurry of interest, Francke decided to cap off this period with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: The Best of Stewart Franke in 2001.