Jackson C Frank

Bio:

Jackson C Frank is the most famous folksinger of the 60's that no one has ever heard of.

This is an authorized tribute page.

The only video of Jackson, playing 'Just Like Anything':




Biography:
The sad life of an influential folk singer began traumatically and ended in obscurity. When he was eleven a furnace at his elementary school in Cheektowaga exploded, killing eighteen of his fellow classmates and leaving Frank with burns over his body. It was here while he was recovering from his injuries in a hospital, Charlie Casatelli, one of his school tutors gifted young Frank with his first guitar which sprung his passion for music.

Greenwich Village's coffeehouse folk scene in the early sixties drew Frank to New York. He met such names as John Kay, later of Steppenwolf. A large insurance settlement he received after he turned 21 enabled him to travel to London, and it was here he made his biggest impact.

He took up a flat with a then struggling folk singer Paul Simon in London, who later was impressed enough to produce ten of Frank's songs in a self-titled album. While Frank's voice was tremulously somber, the quality of the compositions was often impressive, with a reflective, melancholic touch that possibly influenced Simon himself and the likes of Sandy Denny and Nick Drake. Although his first album was well-received in the British folk community, he was unable to reproduce a similar quality of material and crippled any attempt for a follow-up. Combined with deepening depression, increasing stage fright, and an end to his insurance settlement that had allowed him to live freely, he decided a move back to the states in 1969, without releasing another album.

Frank took a slow slide into despair as his depression grew worse. Taking a bus to New York, he hoped to connect with Paul Simon again, but with little luck began sleeping on the streets. He became a ward of the state, and at times he was institutionalized. In 1977, with life looking better, Frank tried to release a new album, but was promptly dismissed by what publishers said was a lack of market appeal for his music. Again he fell into a deep depression, and the injuries from his childhood got much worse, once again he was hospitalized for both physical and medical reasons.

That is until Jim Abbott, a local Woodstock resident and sympathetic fan, rediscovered the aging singer from an inscription on an old album bearing his name in a record store. He successfully made contact with Frank and brought him out of a state housing project in the Bronx and into a senior center in Woodstock. He resumed songwriting and performing occasionally until his death on March 3, 1999.


Links:
Folk Blues & Beyond
Unofficial Jackson C Frank homepage
Wikipedia




Bert Jansch and Al Stewart playing the beginning of 'Blues Run the Game', then the little clip of Jackson playing 'Just Like Anything':

Influences:

He was really close friend with Sandy Denny, John Kay of Steppenwolf and Paul Simon.
He influenced Nick Drake, Counting Crows, Tom Paxton, Dave Cousins, Bert Jansch and so many others...

Jackson has had a major impact on modern folk, he obviously is one of the forefathers of folk music.



Jackson's influences:
"When I was 21 years old John Kay and I took off to Toronto and we tried to spend as much money as fast as possible. I bought a Jaguar straight out of a showroom. We went all over the Northeast dropping into clubs and meeting musicians. We were heavily into the blues back then. We listened a lot to John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGee, and the Library of Congress collection of blues artists."

Frank also had an early appreciation and love for folk songs, especially historical folk songs that told a story:
"By the time I was seventeen I was recording songs for friends. I had a whole album of Civil War tunes. I began collecting old Civil War songs with a passion, and I would record the ones I could sing. I remember going into a studio back then and cutting a side of tracks for $7"

Sounds Like:

'Jackson C Frank' (eponym album) - 1965

"I recorded my album in under three hours in a CBS studio on New Bond Street in London. I remember hiding behind a screen while I was singing and playing, because I was just a little nervous and I didn't want anyone to see me"

His one and only album.

Then he recorded:

Studio tracks in 1960 for an envisaged album entitled "Peaches & Crust", they are beautifully sang country songs.

Studio tracks in 1975 that appears on the 1996 and 2003 re-releases

Studio tracks in 1994, appears on the 2003 re-release

Home demos in 1997, appears on the 2003 re-release