Detroit-based singer/songwriter Stewart Francke has been proudly recording personal folk-pop music since the early '90s, but was performing long before. Francke joined as the bassist in a local blues band when he was 19, playing the blues while the rest of his age group was experimenting with the punk and new wave sounds of the late '70s. The next ten years were spent in touring bar bands, highlighted by opening gigs for Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Luther Allison. The musician eventually settled down, getting married and working as a journalist until, in 1995, Franke released an independent CD called Where the River Meets the Bay, featuring the soulful "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," which ended up being used in an episode of #Melrose Place.