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Artist
Ron Franklin
12+ albums
Alive Naturalsound Recordsfolksinger-songwritersxsw 2009
about
While Ron Franklin doesn't seem to enjoy giving out details about himself -- when or where he was born, where he's living, or even where he'll be playing -- he's become a vital presence on the Memphis, Tennessee music scene, working with a wide variety of noted musicians (among them Jim Dickinson, Jeffrey Evans and James Cotton) and releasing several acclaimed solo albums. Franklin once told journalist Denise Sullivan that he was born while his nomadic parents were making a rest stop during one of their frequent road trips, and that he lived in Texas, California, Chicago and the East Coast as a child, but had spent most of his time in the Deep South. During an extended stay with his grandmother when he was five years old, Franklin developed a taste for blues and early rock and roll while exploring her record collection, and he was introduced to Memphis music when vocalist Jessie Mae Hemphill and legendary fife man Othar Turner made an appearance on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Memphis became the closest thing Franklin has to a real home, and in the Nineties he began making himself known among the city's musical community; he played with Turner as well as Magic Slim and Junior Wells, and became a fixture on the local rock and roll scene, leading the scruffy rock band Ron Franklin and the Entertainers and sitting in with Natural Kicks, South Filthy, Jack Oblivian and the Tennessee Tearjerkers and Mouserocket. Franklin also joined Arthur Lee's final version of Love shortly before L
