by Jaimy Weiler
With this issue’s theme of Coming Home, there’s a chance to ponder the question, “Where is home?” For Stewart Francke, a Michigan musician and writer, music inevitably leads him home…wherever that may be at any given point on this journey we make together called life.
Born in Saginaw in what Stewart refers to as the “halcyon days” of the very late ‘50’s, he is a child of the industry that put Michigan on the global map…cars. With his father as an auto dealer, and even the mayor of Saginaw at one point, Stewart felt the dignity and honor his father had for the people around him, and the humility with which he approached life. He watched his father make sense of and contribute to life in a then-waning industrial town. Stewart absorbed it all, seeing his father in a strong light as he loved his wife, cared for Stewart, and for his two older sisters.
Sports were a big part of life in mid-Michigan in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s and Stewart played with the best of them, becoming an NAIA All-American tennis player. And, growing up with the fields and great lakes, rivers and streams all around him, gave Stewart a richness of life that would show up in many of his lyrics in the years yet to come.
At 14, Stewart taught himself guitar, using the Beatles’ songs which were completely his obsession. Music helped him find his way, giving him a place to come home to when middle school felt a little odd and alienating. “As a kid, I was usually the biggest fan of music in my circle of friends. Music changed me, then saved me, then again changed my life, continually informing my restlessness, urging me on toward something more. A world where the pettiness of social climbing was replaced by a love of the common, a place where a song could be a cultural connection that allowed us to agree on something - then begin to talk about everything else that kept us apart.” By 17, he knew for certain he would be a musician… What did he hope to find in a life of music? “I hoped to be a part of an on-going story…something that began before I did. To get in line and contribute to the Great Song, to add on to all the music that changed me.”
Stewart began making music with others when he was 19, playing bass in a band called the Woolies that often backed Chuck Berry, Del Shannon and other early rock and R&B legends. The Woolies’ founding member, Bob Valodri, offered Stewart a “priceless and intense education”;“I could hardly play, but he trusted my instincts. It was my baptism by fire!” Best of all, Bob offered Stewart a place in the music world of the Midwest…a great place to be in “a time when kids dared to dream. Music was everywhere, on every kitchen AM radio, songs that told the truth and opened up your mind in a complex time...”
Having a way with words and talent as a writer, Stewart also found another strong and intimate connection to the world of music. For years, Stewart wrote interviews, reviews, and articles for the Metro Times after moving to Detroit in his early 20’s. He covered musicians such as the Funk Brothers, Chris Isaak, Laurie Anderson, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Mitch Ryder, Bob Seger and too many more to mention. “I became a musician who wrote about music and interviewed other musicians in order to replenish my thirst as a fan and make some extra money. I’ve always felt that the music I’ve covered, or the music I’ve made myself had to ultimately answer to feeling. Songs are maps for finding and moving ever closer to the light…When I got an article right, it seemed emotionally valid and alive, even close to the music itself.”
Stewart is a family man, with his wife Julia someone that he values deeply, and his daughter and son being a legacy of love he puts forward into the world... He knew Julia for nearly 10 years before they married while Stewart worked bar gigs, day jobs for money and wrote unhappy articles about school board meetings. A day came where Julia said, “Just write, Stewart, you know, the good stuff you can’t get paid for.” She said that she’d support them until he found his voice, found his audience, found his success… Stewart still holds this dear, holds this as the greatest gift of his life… And so he did as Julia suggested; pouring his full energy and attention into playing concerts, writing songs and articles and recording CD’s.
When Stewart was 39, he discovered that he had leukemia (chronic myelogenous leukemia), and began a whole new aspect of the journey to find home within. “It was a Friday…I walked into the clinic at Beaumont, feeling that something wasn’t right, and I opened a seemingly unending bag of chaos. It was a devastating weekend, a serious interruption of life.” “I did my best through all that, but my son was only 2 and my daughter only 4. And at one point, because of risk of infection, I could only see them through a glass window.” It was so very hard for several years, and sometimes it seemed that everything that could go wrong did. “There were days I wished I was dead, yet something kept me moving to the light. I just wanted to live to see my children grow…” With deep gratitude, Stewart found that his sister was a perfect and willing genetic donor and he underwent a successful stem cell transplant in the fall of '98.
After what was a long stumble through darkness, Stewart emerged out into what he calls a brand-new life. “I survived Survival. I didn’t do anything special - so many people helped me, helped us. And music never let me down…never failed to comfort and inspire me.” These days, Stewart has ever so gladly returned to ‘normal.’ “I’m so grateful to be able to be just another pissed off Dad, Thank God!” He hasn’t made a record in the last 7 years so that he can devote time and presence to his children and be with Julia. “I really just want to try to offer others the peace that I am trying to find and create for myself…” He plays and writes music, gives concerts and supports those newly diagnosed with cancer through Karmanos Cancer Institute. “Music is a healing balm…all the material things are booby prizes in this whole insane quest for materiality. Thinking that there is happiness in that is not something I want my children to believe in.” What is it that he would have his children understand? “I would say that dignity is not about what happens to you, it’s about how you handle what happens.” And so, wherever life takes him, with the support of the music he so dearly loves, Stewart works to find himself at home…
For more information on Stewart, his concert schedules, and to purchase any of Stewart’s CD’s, or his book Between the Ground & God - Lyrics, Essays & Interviews 1990-2005, please visit www.StewartFrancke.com
**From the song “Safely Home”, by Stewart Francke, on MotorCity Serenade, @2005, Zane Records.
The Kristen Ann Carr FundSarcoma Forum is a web community developed in loving memory of Kristen Ann by her parents. Its mission is to provide grants for cancer research and to improve all aspects of cancer patient life with an emphasis on adolescents and young adults. Please visit www.sarcoma.com