BIO
at an early age, fran's mom provided the genasis of his lifelong love of music by playing classical music as well as the current pop favorites. some of his earliest memories are of fats domino (blueberry hill), elvis (hound dog), and jerry lee lewis (shake, rattle, & roll). as fran developed his own tastes he leaned to some of those classic artists that he continues to admire such as the beatles, james taylor, nitty gritty dirt band, and so many others. as he grew his tastes continued to develop influenced by a variety of rock and roll, folk rock, blues, and so many other artists. These have formed the foundation of fran's musical style.
fran received his first guitar at an early age, banged on several until he received a stella harmony acoustic for christmas along with guitar lessons. ah, an opportunity to put some logic behind all that banging. one could say he started to truly play the guitar at age 12, took 10 lessons given to him by his parents and learned the rest through a lifelong learning program. along the way he picked up a variety of instruments learning just enough to be dangerous.
he received his first electric guitar the following year, a silvertone les paul replica that had great tone until the neck warped. before he went to college fran's brother encouraged him to buy a new electric guitar. fran had his sights set on a fender stratocaster, found one for sale in the local classifieds, and the two set out to make a deal. a little later fran was the proud owner of a 1972 strat which he still owns today. while in college he picked up a takimine 12 string which he later traded in for a gibson b-45 12 string. after graduation and marriage, fran's wife purchased a danelectro/silvertone bass. several years later, another gift from his wife, an ovation 6 string held his acoustic guitar attention span. he could go on and on with other guitars he has owned but you get the idea.
fran performed in several bands over the years, the most successful being mickey and the mustangs, based out of louisville, ky. most recently he has focused his efforts on writing and recording original music, much of what you can find available on this web site. listen, enjoy, and take away your own impressions.
The guitar that started it all
