Hodgepodge

'On HodgePodge, Glenn serves up some excellent bluesy/jazzy originals. Like sitting down to a down home southern Sunday dinner, this is fine musical comfort food.' Phil Hirschi, former cellist with John McClaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra 'HodgpePodge is an eclectic groove that reminds me a little of Lour Reed. There is a lot of richness to mine in both lyrics and music.' Nina Laden, nationally acclaimed author and illustrator. HodgePodge is a Whitman's sampler of all original music written by Glenn Frank (aka Glennwood) with musical assistance from his son Woody and help from several other fine musicians - Will Dowd on various percusssion instruments, Mason Hargrove on jazz guitar (4 songs), Charles Wicklander on keys (3 tunes), Lisa Nagouchi on violin (1 song) and Nick Soini on the vocal of 'A Number of Things' (the lost Beatles song I wrote for them). The songs were written over a period of 40 years - 1967-2007, hence the variety. There is blues rock, jazz, a pop song, a bluegrass sample, a country song, a harmonica instrumental. What else could you want? OK, sorry but the classical tune did not make it onto the CD. Next one for sure. So far the CD has been delivered and/or sold to many friends and relatives - including friends in Slovakia and France. My Iranian hair stylist thinks this would play well in Europe, where she lived for a while in Vienna. Works for me. Here is a review of the CD by music reviewer Joseph B. Wade: Hodgepodge - A Compilation of 40 years In which Glenn, a quick-change artist evokes many and reveals much. An even dozen, just shy of a full suit from Ace to King, neatly divided between instrumentals and tunes with lyrics. Neatly divided too between morning, afternoon and happy hour. Some songs for long sunny days and warm nights, and others for more chilly times. We can probably remember thinking back on the events of our lives, the moves, the jobs, the friends, and the things that memorialize them, the pictures, the artwork, and the albums and CD's we have collected as a Museum of a Peculiar Life. Sometimes that's just what we end up with after a casual stroll through life. We're left with a hodgepodge. Not so Mr. Frank Playing through the CD I found much to capture my attention; insightful lyrics, smart ensemble play, and some songs that just quot;workedquot; from start to end. Glenn thinks that he's thrown together a quot;hodgepodgequot; of songs covering 40 years of his musical life (and single life, and family life, and spiritual questioning, not to mention having three children). But I think that this CD is not quot;a gathering of property for distribution to the heirs of an intestate parentquot; - one meaning of quot;hodgepodgequot; pointed out in the CD booklet. This is a Masters Thesis from a man who has achieved a level of mastery in the specialty of his own life. And the art of song. This collection runs a wide course, as a mature river should. It begins, as every former salesman knows it should, with a joke. The Quarter Century 25-year Freakin' Out Blues tells an attention-starved quot;wild womanquot; hungry for marriage that if she gets any more wild quot;I'm gonna call the city zoo, and they're gonna come getcha!quot; to a strong backbeat, and bottle-neck wailing guitar. This moves easily into Your Own Sake (Instructions for Self), with almost the same beat and instrumentation. Almost, but already the scene has begun to change. There's that piano and a little more funk in the drum pops. Now we're not in the background of a domestic comedy,