Human Liturgy

Somewhere between prayer and dreaming.

The music on this album was recorded in Houston, Texas, but in some ways it sounds like it could be from anywhere east of the sunrise or west of the sunset. The main instrument is guitar and the record is driven from beginning to end by hauntingly beautiful acoustic guitar and soulful, raspy vocals. The rest of the album’s instrumentation, however, is eclectic, ranging from the exotic sounds of sitar, doumbek, and udu to the more folksy sounds of hammered dulcimer, mandolin, and piano, as well as fretless bass, drumset, violin, viola, and cello. There is an otherworldly feel to this record somewhere between prayer and dreaming. This is beautiful music that aches.

Frank is also the leader of the art-rock band Atomic Opera which has recorded for Warner Brothers, Giant records and Metal Blade. His band-mates from Atomic Opera are all on board for this project, Kemper Crabb playing mandolin, recorder, mountain dulcimer and singing harmonies, Johnny Simmons playing various percussion and full drumset, Trip Wamsley adding his fretless bass be-wonderment throughout, and Ryan Birsinger bringing his studio craftsmanship to mixing and recording.

Frank’s good friends Mandy and Maggie from December’s End are also featured prominently throughout the record providing strings and harmonies that lift the listener into the heavens.

The idea for this record was years in the making. Over a period of about fifteen years there was a pretty good stockpile of songs that didn’t really fit Atomic Opera, but were loved by friends and family. These songs would be performed in Frank’s solo acoustic shows and were well received. The dream of making a record so these songs would have a home was a long time in the making.

Once the recording process began in Frank’s home studio it would be five years before it was done. There was a lot of drama. Children were born, house and studio flooded and had to be rebuilt, and Frank started working full time as the music director at a church.

Finally, in 2005 the album was finished and set free into the universe.

So, there’s no big marketing machine working day and night to make sure that anyone knows about this music. It just sits quietly on the internet waiting for people like you to stumble upon it. Patient.

I’m confident that if you have found it, you will invite it into your life, and you will not regret it.