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Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Wayne Franklin
Lead
Vocals: Wayne Franklin
Programmed Music: Rob Franklin
Children Vocals: Jill & Mitchell Borden, Jessica & Colton
McDonald
Biographies
Wayne
Franklin
I am a life-long resident of Dryden and have my wife Shirley
and one son Rob,
who is an accomplished musician. I
first got interested in music as a student at
Albert Street School when I was chosen to sing in a music
competition in Kenora.
I love all forms of music, mainly for the fun and enjoyment
of it even though I have
not had any formal training. In High School I joined with
two friends, James Schwetz
and Larry Shorrock, to form a trio called 'The Teenaires'.
We sang anywhere and
everywhere, and once, we even got paid. I spent an enjoyable
time in the 'Serinaders'
group with the only real musical instruction I've ever had
coming from Rena Fatheringham,
Mae Denby and Alice Bloomfield. These are fantastic people.
I write song lyrics as
one of my hobbies and even recorded one of my songs at Mid
Ocean recording studio
in Winnipeg. This was just a fun thing and a cousin in the
music industry paid the shot.
I formed the 'Swamp Crickets Band' which consists of Ken
Denby, my son Rob and
myself. We also take on anyone else who wants to have fun
singing humorous songs
and just goof around. We make them honorary Swamp Crickets,
just for the gig.
I also do children's entertaining as "Uncle Dudley the Magic
Clown'. I incorporate music,
singing, magic and general all around silliness in the act.
I get a lot of fun and enjoyment
from music and even inspired a cousin to go into the music
business. It seems when he
was eight or nine he heard me playing guitar at a party and
decided he wanted to be
a musician like cousin Wayne. He has since become one of the
top entertainers in the
Calgary area. I never ever told him I only know three
chords. My biggest inspiration is
Ray Stevens and my biggest influence has been Ken and
Jeannette Denby, who have
always been more than eager to help and support me in any
way. The people involved
in the local music scene are the best you'll find on this
planet, they are the greatest!
Jill Borden
Jill just turned 10 years old. She is a great student,
someone her teacher describes as
always having a great attitude and a pleasure to have in the
class. She is currently enrolled
in her 1st year voice lessons at Niagara Conservatory of
Music. Jill is a member of the
choir at Power Glen Public School and this is her second
appearance as a backup vocalist
on a CD produced by her father Gary.
Mitchell Borden
Mitchell is almost 7. He is a popular student with his
teachers and classmates. He is looking
forward to starting drum lessons in January and is very
active in sports. This is Mitchell's
first appearance on a CD.
Jessica McDonald (age 13)
Jessica started music with the PineWood Fine Arts Program in
Grade 6. She plays clarinet
in school and in November of 2004 she joined the Dryden
Community Band. Jessica has
been taking keyboard lessons from Ken Denby for about 1 year
now. She really enjoys
music and is always singing along to whatever is playing on
the radio or stereo. She is thrilled
to be a part of this recording.
Colton McDonald (age 10)
Colton loves to be a part of everything. He is taking guitar
lessons from Ken Denby and is
itching to play drums as well. He would rather be dirt
biking or riding his snow machine than
to practice his music, but in time that will come. He is
constantly making up his own "tunes".
He is very excited to be a part of the Christmas CD along
with the rest of his family.
Rob Franklin
I
always have trouble writing this type of thing. I always
read it and think "this is nothing
but
a brag sheet". Nothing I've done I can take full credit for.
Every show, every
accomplishment has been the result of a favor or an
introduction from somebody else.
All
my accomplishments, are the accomplishments of others. I
always had a musical
influence. My father sang and played guitar in the living
room and at parties. I thought
everybody's dad did. He'd sit me on his amplifier and play
while I sang the popular
tunes from the 60's kiddie hit parade. Grandmother had a
piano in the basement, I
remember her playing and singing and was in awe, but what
she played and sang
escapes all of us to this day. Every Sunday mom would bring
me to church, we'd go
up
into the choir loft and she'd sing in the choir. It was
something special, so I felt
special just being up there and not sitting with the rest of
the parishioners. I was fortunate
enough to have parents who could identify my musical
potential, at five years old they
bought me a set of drums from the Eatons Christmas
catalogue, I'd put an "X" on the
picture that year along with every other toy they had for
sale, and I guess dad thought
a
duo act in the living room would get good reviews. The drums
heads were made of
paper and tin and didn't last very long. In grade school
some of the kids got to leave
the
classroom and go to their private music lessons, I was green
with envy. I suppose
I
just wanted to get out of class. I know I wouldn't have
practiced at home unless it'd
have
postponed bedtime.
Christmas morning of 1974 a Honer chord organ appeared
by
the tree, Santa heard my wish. I had seen a nine year old on
the Don McLean show
playing the organ. Being nine years old myself, he made
quite an impression on me.
By
the end of Christmas day, I was playing it. At least I
thought I was. It was a play
by
number system so I played all the notes the same duration.
"Long Long Ago" was
far
far away from sounding like it should have. Mom and dad
seemed impressed, so I
thought I was ready for T.V. . By and by I lost interest,
and mother learned to play it.
In
1975 I was taught by a male teacher, who for the first time
taught us music during
the
music portion of our curriculum. The fact that he would play
guitar for us to sing
along to was a huge thing to us ten year olds. He taught a
few of us to play ukulele after
school which was I thought was cool too. I could finally
play in the living room with my
dad.
Dad's guitar was off limits...But what he didn't know
wouldn't hurt him...me...well,
a
warm butt wouldn't stay warm forever. I learned a couple of
chords from the diagrams
in
his song books and would secretly try to play. When I
finally got caught, I didn't get a
warm
butt, I got guitar lessons. Guitar lessons were a bust
though, they taught us to play
songs on the guitar not how to "play the guitar". I lost
interest. I never lost interest in
music though, in high
school I signed up for the music course and fully expected
to play
trumpet. Day one saw me sitting behind the tuba. Oh well, at
least the music course
would be an easy credit. I liked the tuba, I wanted to play
bass guitar when I was
younger and could understand the similarities between the
two. Two years later, I
arranged to take lessons on trumpet after school from the
teachers assistant. I bought
my
own trumpet in 1981 and was assigned third chair trumpet in
the senior band in 1981.
Like
an idiot I quit school in May of 1982 to work at the local
tree nursery, so, another
year
in school was necessary. It was the music class that kept me
interested in school
and
I did graduate, just later than I should have. The summer of
1982 I acquired a set
of
Pearl drums and by September I was getting paid to play
them. I had owned those
drums for less than two months, had never played the drums
before I bought them, and
here
I was with a paying gig! I had paying gigs for three years
before I ever had a formal
drum
lesson. I gig'd every weekend with the Cornerstone band, had
decent day jobs and
loved every minute of it! But all good things must come to
an end and I took some time
away
from all things music.
In
1990 I was contacted by Ken Denby to play drums in his
band. I was rusty but needed to get back into it. I missed
the stage, and the fellowship
among band mates. I jumped at the chance and went at it
cold. Within a month I felt sharp
again. I played in Ken's band for three years doing club
rooms, dance halls, weddings, the
local type thing. In 1993 I was selling advertising for the
Local Express and doing the music
thing at night in Ken's band when Andrew and Wanda Taylor, a
duo act calling themselves
W.C.and Company, came to town looking for a drummer to pick
up for the week. They'd
booked into the Central Saloon as a three piece band but had
fired their drummer only days
before. Karen Leutchaft introduced me to them and I went to
scope them out. I couldn't pass
up
the opportunity to try out the bar scene with musicians who
were playing for a living. I
toured with them for several months until they went on to a
house gig at Paradise Cove in
Minaki Ontario as a duo. I was fortunate enough to be asked
to do a few more shows with
them
at Paradise Cove where on one occasion Moon Martin, of
Cheap Trick fame, was
in
attendance. I wasn't able to meet him and was unaware of his
presence at the show until
several days later. He kept to himself and didn't introduce
himself to Andrew until his fishing
trip
was over and his party was leaving for home. He had positive
things to say about our
show
and acknowledged my ability as a drummer. After Andrew told
me about it, I knew
I
couldn't ever be satisfied with a day job again.
In
the fall of that year, Steve Denby decided
he'd
rather play in his brother Chris' band, Ken and I were left
with no lead guitar player.
This
was just what I needed. My cousin, Allan Barrett, who is one
of the top entertainers
in
Calgary was in town for the weekend. Although he never
performed with us, he was able
to
give me the incentive to continue, not as a drummer but as a
guitar player. I gave Allan
the
money I made, at our final show as a band, and he bought a
computer which was popular
among solo and duo acts for me. I took a about a year to
learn how to program backing tracks
on
that computer and play guitar well enough to perform. Ken
and I debuted our duo act, the
"Saloon
Nuts" on a local telethon in 1994. We played several
weekends over the course of a
year
and a half. I miss the fun, the fights, the nights we
played and the laughs. Ken has taught
me
more and influenced me more than anyone except maybe my
parents.
Late
in 1996, Don
Winters showed up in the Central Saloon as a single act. I'd
seen him perform in Dryden for
several years under many different names but never as a
single. Charles Terris
introduced me
to
him about a year prior when Don did a weekend as a trio at
the sports bar. He invited me
up
to do a number as a guest in his solo act. We talked about
it after the set and I ended up
finishing the week with him. We agreed to form a duo after
he finished up his current schedule
as
a single. About a month later he passed through town again
and we set out with fame and
fortune on our minds. We did a few weekends around Manitoba,
a one nighter here and there
and
then came back to Dryden booked for a week in the Central
Saloon . I stayed home for
Christmas since it was only a week away, the agent didn't
have us booked anywhere else yet.
Since I was home for Christmas, Bob Ewanchuck, the owner of
the Central Saloon, asked me
to
cover his Christmas and New Year weeks as a single act. Full
of confidence, I agreed. I
played one night and the whole building's heating system
went down, so, I lost the rest of the
time
we'd agreed to. He made up for it though, from that time on,
I played over 80% of the
nights for the next year and a half in the Central Saloon,
as a single act "house band". But after
that
much time in one spot I needed a change, so I went "on the
road again" until a catastrophic
equipment
failure shut me down. I thought it was going to be
permanent, but thanks to mom
and
dad, Keith and Carmina Heibert, eBay, a little luck and the
aversion to having a day job,
I'm
back better than ever. As of late I'm recording in my own
home studio using "state of the
art"
equipment and a digital multi
track recording system. I independently contract for any
studio who'll pay the price. I create backing tracks for
live performances, write and record
jingles and arrange and record all the music for my fathers
children's shows. Although I don't
perform live on a regular basis, I always want to. Every
time I've stepped on the stage it's
because Ken Denby either made it possible through the loan
of equipment or through the
moral support and encouragement he gives to all musicians.
Dryden would surely be much
less
musical if Ken didn't live here. I know I likely wouldn't be
a musician. All of us are better
musicians
and better people for having Ken and Jeanette as part of our
community.
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