New England folksinger Bob Franke (it rhymes with Yankee) is, as the Boston Globe eloquently writes, a songwriter "unsurpassed for his lyrical grace." Bob has a gift for writing about the deepest and most spiritual of human concerns, in beautiful songs like his famed "Alleluia, the Great Storm is Over" that arise from his own religious experience and questioning. A brilliant guitarist, Bob also has the ability to play a sizzling version of a Robert Johnson blues and then move to a lighter note with originals on subjects ranging from alien invasions to New Age psychobabble. On his recent live album, The Other Evening in Chicago, as in all of his concerts, Bob's incisive lyrics and memorable melodies grab and involve listeners in a diverse collection of songs about loss, love, courage, and compassion—and the Acid Polka.

Folk legend Tom Paxton summed him up this way: "I always think of Bob as if Emerson and Thoreau had picked up acoustic guitars and gotten into songwriting. There's touches of Mark Twain and Buddy Holly in there, too."