Franckely speaking

When singer-songwriter Stewart Francke sent a song to Bruce Springsteen's people in the hopes that the Boss would add some vocals, he knew the odds were slim that he'd get anything back. One can only imagine how many similar requests Springsteen receives, and what he could charge if he so chose.

But what do you frickin' know, the song came back, all Bruced up.

Francke is a man who deserves a spot of good fortune. For starters, he's a sweet guy. Humble and soft-spoken, he cringes when complimented, but will quite happily often offer praise. He's that sort of dude.

Between '95 and '98, Francke put an album out every year, each more introspective than the last. In '98, Francke was diagnosed with leukemia and he spent the next few years of his life battling the disease, which involved a bone marrow transplant and years of crippling complications. But he kept writing. Had to. "I even put out a record, Wheel of Life, in the middle of it all. That was tough, but therapeutic."

Francke wouldn't be beaten, and, in 2004, his doctor gave him the all-clear, but he barely had a chance to exhale when both his parents and his wife's parents died over four years beginning in 2005.

He took a break. It was the strain. Lord knows, he needed a vacation.

"I had to take a step back and take care of my kids," Francke says. "They were very young at the time, and they were exposed to too much too soon. It was important that I be there for them."

So here we are, nine years after his last full-length studio album, and Francke has just released Heartless World. It's an apt title considering the 13 years the songwriter has endured.

"Heartless World is a bleak title 'cause it's been a bleak fuckin' time," Francke says.

"Although I don't write many songs about the corrosion of optimism, I am interested in the inevitable loss of illusions and, more importantly, the 'now-what?' that comes after tragedy. The fall. What you gonna do now? How you gonna live after your world falls apart? After cancer? After 9/11? After we've lost all our money? What's going on? After death of friends and family? Can you maintain any romantic ideals at all today?"

Francke can certainly tell sincere stories of loss and ache, but that's not to say Heartless World isn't devoid of hope and declarations of determination ("Faith in Faith Itself," "Soul Survivor"). Francke's songs move and pop in that singer-songwriter tradition of Jackson Browne and Cat Stevens — with tinges of Springsteen and Seger's blue-collar-hero-is-something-to-be 'tude. The Boss makes his appearance on the opener, "Summer Soldier (Holler if ya Hear Me)." In fact, the lyrics are unironic and sobering in a Springsteen social-commentary kind of way. "'Summer Soldier' is," Francke says, "about the military men and women who signed up for the limited tours or for the promised years of school, or even the reserves who signed back up for National Guard duty only to be called into a full rotation over in the Middle East. ... Often more than once. It seemed like another ruse by the 'masters of war.' So the lyric was a way to damn the war but have the troops' back, always. And military people have responded, as conservative as they are. They get the humanity of the soldier's story."

> Email Brett Callwood