Bob Franke and Claudia Schmidt At Linden Tree Coffeehouse

The following is from the Linden Tree Coffeehouse:

The Linden Tree Coffeehouse is pleased to announce that their October 13th concert with Bob Franke and Claudia Schmidt is one of thousands of performances worldwide happening this month as part of Daniel Pearl World Music Days.  Daniel Pearl, the journalist and musician kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan was a classically-trained violinist, as well as a fiddler and mandolin player who joined musical groups wherever he traveled.  Through music, it is our hope that music can bridge differences among people and achieve harmony for humanity.

www.danielpearlmusicdays

BobFranke's songs are considered classics, fueled by his deep faith and the real-life lessons taught him by his 40-odd years of playing everywhere from concert halls to street corners. Bob has appeared in concert at coffeehouses, colleges, festivals, bars, streets, homes and churches in 33 states, four Canadian provinces, England, and recently Russia. His concerts have appeared in lists of the top five musical events of the year chosen by critics in the Boston and San Francisco Bay areas. Throughout a continually productive career Franke has remained a popular concert headliner, but also a beloved teacher of songwriting, always in demand at music camps, festivals, and summer workshops. As with his songs, his goal is to help people see their own lives reflected in music. His performances shimmer with that same desire to meet his audiences eye-to-eye, neighbor to neighbor. His voice is warm, soft and familiar, like your favorite winter gloves. He is a superb guitarist, but you'll never hear a show-offy trill or "look-at-me" lick. Always, he leads you inside his music, using eloquent riffs and elegant, rolling patterns to underscore each song's mood and meaning. You don't focus on what a skilled guitarist he is, because he doesn't want you to; he wants you to join him inside the song. That is his uniquely personal art, the folksy genius of Bob Franke.  www.bobfranke.com

For almost four decades Claudia Schmidt has been exploring the nuances of acoustic music with her voice, 12-string guitar and mountain dulcimer with an exciting collection of original, traditional, and contemporary writing. From small clubs to large concert stages, her craft is at its height in live performance...She has been featured on PRI's A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, a television documentary on KTCA-TV in St. Paul called "I Sing Because I Can't Fly", and has written music for and acted in the musical "Bag Lady Tendencies" with Friends Mime Theater in Milwaukee and Frank Galati's production of "Good Person of Szechuan" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, for which she won a Jefferson Award. All those elements of performing are brought to bear at a Schmidt performance as she mines the humor and poignancy of our lives and shapes it into a 'one-woman revitalization movement.’ The stage is her natural habitat, and every member of her audience is made to feel welcome and energized by her presentation.

Fourteen of her own CDs and several collaborations with other musicians beautifully archive the musical journey she has undertaken, and she is showing no signs of slowing down, writing furiously, more recording in the works, and touring a big part of the year.  To say that Schmidt is simply a performer with a talent to entertain would be a miscarriage of understatement. Schmidt takes her audiences into her world as easily as the child who discovers the endless universes that exist in a cardboard box. www.claudiaschmidt.com/folk

Thanks to support in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Wakefield Council, tickets will be $18, students under 13 $10. Home made baked goods and beverages will be sold prior to the show and during intermission.

The Linden Tree Coffeehouse is located at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 326 Main Streeet, Wakefield.  For more information about the Linden Tree, www.LindentreeCoffeehouse.org,  LindenTree85@comcast.net, 781-246-2836.