Published in the Oct. 28 – Nov. 10, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Mark Fenichel
Frank Dicker
I had heard of local musician Frank Dicker Sr. for quite sometime, and when I first met him I was surprised to meet a soft-spoken, short, bald-headed gentleman with horn-rimmed glasses and the appearance of an accountant or a banker. It turns out Frank is indeed a retired banker with years of business experience. But how true is the saying “Don’t judge a book by the cover” as he is truly an experienced singer-songwriter with a long history of experience in the music business and simply put … a nice guy.
Frank has been singing all his life. His love for music started at an early age in Fresno, where he was a singer in the local Cub Scout band. In high school in Alameda he was an Eddie Fisher “sound a like” singing at local gigs.
In the early ‘70s he seriously began writing after hearing James Taylor’s first album and has never stopped.
Frank has been married since 1958 and has two boys, both terrific musicians themselves.
He believes the best songs are always crafted around good storytelling. This is probably why many of his songs take on a country type feel. Take his song “Ridin’ on That Train.” It tells the story of a young lad on the train to clear his head. We find out that the tracks on his body lead to a sad ending.
“LA Town” is a story about Frank’s career as a San Francisco banker and how he loved to go south and then learned his northern bosses didn’t always like the changes he made while there.
“Drag The Main” is a Hagar-type rocker that tells a story about driving his car down main street with his girl.
”Run Jack Run’ is a dog lover’s story about man’s best friend and how the dog didn’t back down on the trail when he was confronted by a large cat.
“Sweet Honey Pie” is a love story done to a blues beat. You can see that his stories are a central point of his songs. Frank is an ASCAP writer and publisher (Frank A. Dicker Music) and has written songs for film, TV, games, and advertising. His writing covers several genres including country, rock, R&B, jazz, blues, and pop.
From my first time seeing Frank in a live performance setting I was extremely impressed with his finger-style guitar playing and his smooth well-seasoned vocals.
At the time we met, I was playing weekly duos in a local barbecue joint and thought it would be fun if we could play one together. My harmonica seemed to fit into his music, although Frank appeared a bit apprehensive about playing together since he is so used to being a solo act. Frank suggested we get together and it turned out we had a nice rehearsal in his home studio and it really worked.
Frank had read my article about local producer/musician Polo Jones (Vol.1 Issue 15 Jan. 8, 2014) and contacted Jones about producing his music.
Polo basically took Frank’s songs and revised much of the music, brought in a host of top quality musicians and produced a fine-quality, 10-song CD of Frank’s songs called The Dicker/Jones Project. It is a wonderfully well-produced album with a diverse variety of song styles.
I must give Frank a lot of credit for allowing someone full license to redo his music and have him play minimally and in some songs not at all on his own album.
I was asked to be part of this project and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the studio with Polo. I was quite impressed with Polo’s vision and how he knew exactly what he wanted from me and was able to effortlessly bring it out during the session. I am extremely proud of the final mix on both songs I worked on.
Additionally, they created a brand new Christmas single “My Coloring Book” that will likely get some radio airplay this holiday season.
You can find more about Frank and download some of his music at www.dickermusic.com. Frank continues to perform and you can see him live at many of the weekend Farmer’s Markets throughout the Bay Area.
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On another note:
GVA Cafe once again will be having their annual Halloween party Saturday October 31 with live music by Rich Bermea. Also The Snarky Cats will be playing GVA in November. For more details visit them on Facebook or go to http://gvacafe.tumblr.com.
Got a music tip? Email [email protected].
