A singer-songwriter synonymous with northern B.C. is coming back to home turf.
Blues rocker Kathy Frank has been living in the Lower Mainland for the past several years. She was a regular on local stages and radio waves, especially due to her protest anthem Highway Of Tears about the infamous list of missing and murdered women along Highways 16 and 97.
She hasn't been back to P.G. since 2008, but has kept in touch with a lot of her friends and contacts. They are sharing the excitement of her return in a few weeks.
"I miss my fans there so much. They gave me such a great start to my career and showed me so much love," she told The Citizen, as she planned for her return concert. "I have been taking a breather from performing a lot for a bit now and cannot wait to dance my butt off and have some fun."
Coming back to a friendly and familiar stage is a triumph of another sort, as well. She is hanging her hat in her hometown of Smithers, lately, as she recovers.
"I have been healing after I was in a very damaging and abusive relationship that took me to having to run with my baby with nothing but a fishing rod and a frying pan to keep us fed," she said. "But that taught me so much about myself and the music I would like to do in the future - more powerful then ever. I am working on starting a school of music here in Smithers for challenged individuals young and old to help them heal and bring the joy of music to their lives. I am so excited to get this going this summer."
Her life in Smithers was what got her on the path of social advocacy in music in the first place. Her friend Ramona Wilson was one of those Highway Of Tears victims. She disappeared and, a year later, her body was found on the outskirts of Smithers. Her murder has yet to be solved. It left Frank grieving, writing, and organizing.
"The Highway Of Tears song has done amazing - over 75,000 hits on YouTube and last year I put on a festival to celebrate the lives of the ladies that have gone missing. We called it the Ramona Wilson Music festival and had over 1,000 people come out and enjoy a day of free music," she said. "The song over the years has been a song of warning to women all over the world and has been given out free of charge since the day I recorded it. A few countries have ordered many copies to hand out to their women in group homes and at support groups and I am thrilled that people are becoming more aware of this problem."
Frank is much more than a one-song act, however. Her power vocals and repertoire have propelled her through years in the blues business. In 2006, she performed in the gala finals of the David Foster Star Search event where celebrity judge Daisy Fuentes shouted "I love you!" when Frank finished belting out the Tracy Chapman hit Gimme One Reason.
Since then, the northern blues buster has gotten to sing for Etta James, joined Lee Aaron on stage, shared the stage with the B.C. all-stars of the blues like Harpdog Brown and Brandon Isaak for the Memphis Blues Challenge and had a song hit number 2 on the Canadian ReverbNation Blues Chart.
"I am working on my fourth album this year and hope to have it ready next fall sometime," she said. "I would ultimately like to help people with my music. Over the 10 years I have been in the business I have seen and been through so much violence and heartache and seen the power of music and how it can change you and that has become more important to me then anything else. Don't get me wrong, I am still out to win a Juno Award one day but the feeling when you see your music take a boy from silent to singing and talking is a feeling I don't think even a Juno could beat."
Her ripple effect washes across Prince George on April 8 when she is the special headliner guest of the Blues Underground. She will be joined by consummate local music collaborators Nick Tindale on drums, Dave Schulte on bass and Mike Morneau on guitar.
This dance happens at the Seniors Activity Centre at 425 Brunswick St. It's for ages 19-plus. Tickets are on sale now at Books & Company for $25 or $20 for members of the Blues Underground club. For discounts on groups of four or more, contact Earl Krushelnicki at bluespg@shaw.ca.
