Frank Hurricane

Dark times grip the feeds and frames these days but through the anxious mornings, the restless nights, Frank Hurricane has remained a much needed troubadour of goodwill and grace. From the stage lights to the studio stool, Hurricane has tapped into the quiet moments, secret handshakes, and small favors that get us all through the day. Frank is the patron saint of small towns with big hearts, of outcasts in outreach. He repaints his surroundings without judgment, a voice from the margins that’s both bard and bartender. He follows up one of his career best, the quietly released and criminally overlooked River of Love with a tumble into the arms over at Nudie Records. For Southern Shrymp (in the Big City) he exits the company of The Hurricanes of Love, instead working out the new set with production and instrumentation from Hunter Davidsohn, who has helmed records from Sheer Mag, Frankie Cosmos, and his own Old Lady, among others. They’re joined by pedal steel secret weapon, Jon Catfish Delorme, who can be found on RSTB favorites from Woods and Beach Fossils, to Cut Worms, Michael Rault, Mapache and Color Green, He’s always a name that’s welcome in the credits.

Imbued with his rambler’s wit and country ease, the new record sidles nicely into Frank’s catalog, another travelogue of camping runs and corner characters, a sanguine sanctuary stocked with a case of St. Ides. Every song unfolds on a bed of strums, sonorous harmonies, and the kind of stoop-front charm that would make Frank the storyteller of any great neighborhood. Thankfully with the tape rolling, that neighborhood is larger than city blocks or backroad trails can contain. We’re all stoop side, sat wide-eyed and wondering what Frank’s going to unfurl next. Davidsohn and Delorme help hem it all in, turning his honeyed hymns into sing-a-longs at the theme park pulpit. The ordinary moments are all holy to Frank, quiet gifts as worthy of lifting up as any miracle. The air is sweet, the brook is brimming, the sun is shining, and we’re all welcome in Frank’s choir.