| Ron Franklin
Memphis Records
City Lights CD (2007)
 $12.59 
Along the way, he’s met or played with Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes, Magic Slim, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Yank Rachell, Fred Ford and numerous others who inspired him. In short, Ron Franklin is one of a kind. Folk, blues, country, old timey are labels he could easily wear but chooses not to.He began his musical wanderings at the age of four when he picked up the harmonica found himself playing Leadbelly songs and Irish reels, later trying his hand at the fiddle and, later, a gut string guitar. He heard records by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley and The Spaniels and his grandparents’ collection of Malaco, Chess and country records had a profound influence. He’s a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and the songs he writes original songs can be evocative, plaintive and rocking. As a child, he never lived in one place very long, he deadpans, “I was raised mostly in a U-Haul.” While City Lights, his debut album for Memphis International, was recorded in that city, he continues to make his home on the road, having shown up in North Carolina, East Texas, Louisiana and Chicago over the past few years. Ron Franklin is an enigmatic young musician whose music is, at once, raw and polished. He’s played in numerous bands, fronting The Entertainers and achieving some notoriety in the garage scene with The Natural Kicks as well as Mouserocket, South Filthy, The Tearjerkers, The Memphis Roadmasters and, briefly, Love with the late Arthur Lee.
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