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Upon entering Silverlake Lounge Tuesday night to catch Robert Francis’ set, all I knew about him was what his press release had told me; he was 19, from LA, Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar and was a student of John Frusciante when he was 16 (somehow Frusciante found time between recording and releasing 1,000 solo albums). Granted I had listened to a couple songs online briefly and enjoyed what I heard. So I decided to check him out live. I got there as he and his band were beginning their second song and immediately knew I was going to like him due to the fact that A) he was holding a beer (underage drinking is something I passionately support) and B) he had a pedal steel player (this is always a good thing, any band is better with pedal steel). Luckily my quick judgment was backed up with a half hour of great music.

Now you would think after reading his bio that he would be some kind of guitar prodigy who would be wanking all over the place like Johnny Lang or something, but fortunately, one of his admitted idols is Townes Van Zandt and he seems to have taken more of his musical cues from him and writes earnest folk songs that dabble in rock and country influences. On stage, Francis reminded me a bit of a young Bruce Springsteen (again, he’s 19 years old!) and his band was amazing, including a bass player that looked like Paul from Wonder Years if he had grown up in Silverlake i.e. hair-longer, glasses-cooler, vintage tennis shoes-the same. It was Francis’ show though and his voice took center stage and demanded attention from everyone as he played tracks off of his debut album One by One like “Alice” and “Love For Me”. I apparently wasn’t the only one impressed though as I literally overheard this statement following a song, “he’s the real deal man”.

www.myspace.com/robertfrancis

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