Detroit, MI (Top40 Charts/ Stewart Francke Official Website) Michigan rock & soul artist Stewart Francke will release his 11th cd, Heartless World, on May 17, 2011. It's his first cd of new music since 2002. The album's single, "Summer Soldier (Holler If Ya Hear Me)" features rock legend
Bruce Springsteen on vocals along with Francke.
"This is a tremendously cool thing for Bruce to do," Francke says, "and of course a real honor. It was always his voice I heard on the call and response part of this track, but figured it would remain just a wish. He found something in it compelling enough to join me, and I'm still a bit knocked out about it all. He's been the quintessential artist of our time-the guy who wrote the book on how it's done."
The story of a soldier in one of America's Mideastern wars, the song relates the soldier's thoughts at the same time it comments on the notion of American Exceptionalism. "I hope the song works on a couple levels," Francke says. "It's a very complicated situation-my job is to tell a story from the most human standpoint and say we can condemn the wars but support our troops."
"Boo Yah (Take My Mother Home)," another standout track, is a funky vamp with Amp Fiddler on clavinet and Detroit rock and soul legend Mitch Ryder on vocals. "Mitch is a friend and hero and among my favorite living singers," Stewart continues. "This whole project has seemed charmed since we began recording. It all sounds kinda like Ray Davies and Holland-Dozier-Holland jammin' together, which is that combination I've been aspiring to my whole career."
The cd will be released independently on Blue Boundary Productions & Burnside Dist and digitally by IODA/Sony. The release of Heartless World will be supported with a Michigan mini-tour this summer, with Francke and his band playing select cd release concerts in Detroit, Saginaw, Canton, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, and many other summer concert stops. Francke & his Band also recently opened the 2011 Bob Seger Tour in Toledo, OH.
Heartless World is Francke's first work of new material since 2002, and summarizes a period of great sadness, change, and personal challenge. Stewart and his wife, Julia, lost both sets of parents in a four year period, as well as two friends he'd grown close to through his work in cancer outreach. His period of personal loss and pain was mirrored by the tremendously dark period the country was enduring as well. "This whole album is about trying to find a place to make a stand in the world, after all of your foundational pillars have gone to dust. It's through these songs that I'm trying to construct a world that I want to live in-a world where I remember the best things about the people who are gone, a world where we look out for each other, and the currency that matters is being real, finding hope, common ground and having faith in each other. When you have no one or nothing left to lean on, do you fall on your face or find another way to stand? Or do you become someone everyone else can lean on? These were the things I was thinking about while writing these songs.
The recording and promotional funding for the project comes from Francke's successful internet fan-funding campaign on Kickstarter. Francke raised more than $20,000 via small donations in exchange for a copy of the cd, free concerts tickets, T-shirts and other rewards. Kickstarter is one of several new "crowdfunding " sites for artistic projects, essentially pre-selling the music and allowing the artists to concentrate on the project. The project was recorded in Detroit and mixed at RMS Studios in Birmingham and Harmonie Park Studio, Detroit.
For more information, please contact Pete Wurdock at [email protected] or call 248 568-9091
Stewart Francke & His Band
2011 Heartless World Michigan mini-tour
June 3-Callahans Music Cafe, Auburn Hills, cd release show - Detroit
June 10 - Village Theater, Canton, cd release show - West Detroit
June 17 - Pit & Balcony Theater, Saginaw, cd release show - Saginaw
June 24 - Wealthy Theater, Grand Rapids wsg Jill Jack-cd release show-western michigan
June 25 - Northville-outdoor show
June 30 - The Ark, Ann Arbor
August 11 - Farmington Hills amphitheater
Sept 1-3 - Arts beats Eats
