Opera House: Donavon Frankenreiter, 3/8

06 Mar Opera House: Donavon Frankenreiter, 3/8

Telluride’s Sheridan Arts Foundation presents surf-rocker Donavon Frankenreiter with opener Grant-Lee Philips live at the Sheridan Opera House on Wednesday, March 8. SHOW Bar opens at 7 p.m.; show starts AT 8 p.m. The opening act is Grant-Lee Philips. Tickets are $20 general admission on the floor;  $30 reserved seats in the balcony. (A $4 ticketing fee is charged at all ticket outlets.) Tickets are for sale online at sheridanoperahouse.com or by calling 970.728.6363 ext. 5. Scroll down to preview Frankenreiter in action.

Donavon Frankenreiter’s new album, The Heart, officially marks the start of the singer-songwriter’s second decade as a solo recording artist. It’s been over 10 years since the release of his self-titled debut and, in that time, he has grown, not only as a musician, but also as a man. Frankenreiter is raising a family and nurturing two creative careers – one onstage; the other in the waves – but on top of all that, he’s still learning what makes him tick. So, naturally, he named his new album after his ticker.

“All these songs are as close to me singing from the heart as I can,” says Frankenreiter. “It’s a complete record; the songs are intertwined. I had to call it ‘The Heart.’ That was the theme of the record.” 

“Grant told me, ‘You should make the most intimate and honest record you’ve ever made,”‘ says Frankenreiter. “So these songs are simple and intimate and honest; they aren’t cheeky. There’s some ups and downs – I love writing positive songs and happy tunes – but there are some downers here. I feel like it’s where I’m at, 42 years old. Every one of these songs means a lot to me. They are, again, from the heart.”

For more on the “The Heart,” go here.

And here is the artist’s bio on AllMusic:

Before launching a solo career as the protégé of Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter began his professional life as a surfer. Born in Southern California on December 10, 1972, he landed a sponsorship with Billabong as a young teenager and moved to Hawaii when he was 14. There, he rented a home from the parents of Jack Johnson, a fellow surfer with an untapped musical talent. The two became fast friends, learning guitar together and hanging out between trips to the beach. Music was always a hobby for Frankenreiter, who began playing guitar in a local rock band called Sunchild during his late teens, but it wasn’t until 2002 that he grew confident enough to try a solo career. Meanwhile, Johnson‘s musical career had taken a meteoric leap, and he was starting his own Brushfire Records label. Frankenreiter reached out to his old friend, who released Frankenreiter‘s self-titled debut in May 2004. Johnson also made a guest appearance on the record, along with G. Love and Koool G Murder of the Eels.

For his next record, Frankenreiter broke from his mentor’s label and partnered up with Lost Highway, which released 2006’s Move by Yourself. An EP full of cover songs, Recycled Recipes, appeared in 2007, with the polished full-length Pass It Around following a year later. Around this time, Frankenreiter relocated to Kauai and began gravitating toward Hawaiian instruments like slack key guitar, lap steel, and ukulele. All three figured prominently on his next album, Revisited, essentially a reinterpreted version of his 2004 debut with a tropical island feel. Revisited was released in 2010, as were a second volume of the Recycled Recipesseries and a fourth album of original material, Glow.