Franklin Hovington (January 9, 1919 – June 21, 1982), also known as Guitar Frank, was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

. He played the

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

and sang in the Piedmont blues style. He lived in the vicinity of

Frederica, Delaware Frederica is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover metropolitan area. The population was 1,073 in 2020. ILC Dover, the company which manufactured the spacesuits for the Apollo and Skylab astronauts of the 1960s ...

. Hovington was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...

. His style was modelled on

Blind Boy Fuller Fulton Allen (July 10, 1904 – February 13, 1941), known as Blind Boy Fuller, was an American blues guitarist and singer. Fuller was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists, along with Blind Blake, Josh White, and Budd ...

, although he played the guitar using a strong thumb beat and experimented with styles of rhythm. On a tip from the folklorist Peter B. Lowry, he was recorded by

Dick Spottswood Richard K. "Dick" Spottswood (born April 17, 1937) is an American musicologist and author from Maryland, United States who has catalogued and been responsible for the reissue of many thousands of recordings of vernacular music in the United Sta ...

and

Bruce Bastin Bruce Bastin (born 19 September 1939) is an English folklorist and a leading expert on the blues music styles of the southeastern states of America (such as East Coast blues and Piedmont blues). In 2022, his publication ''Red River Blues: The B ...

, with an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

released on

Flyright Records Flyright Records is a British record label incorporated in 1970 by Mike Leadbitter, Simon Napier, and Bruce Bastin. It specializes in reissues of American blues artists, but has issued some jazz by British musicians and some American jazz di ...

in the UK (available on CD) and on

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts, by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by A ...

in the US. Selections were recorded by Axel Küstner and Siggi Christmann for German release, most recently issued by

Evidence Records Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what justifi ...

in the US. He disliked travel and did not play away from his Delaware home, afraid that he would lose his welfare support payments, and so did not get the publicity from

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

appearances alone that his talent deserved. He died in

Felton, Delaware Felton is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover metropolitan area, Dover metropolitan statistical area. The population was 1,568 in 2020. History Established in 1856 as a whistle stop along the Delaware Railroad ...

, in June 1982, at the age of 63.

References

External links

Illustrated Frank Hovington discography
1919 births 1982 deaths Country blues musicians Piedmont blues musicians American blues guitarists American male guitarists Singers from Delaware Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania Singers from Pennsylvania 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Delaware Guitarists from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male musicians African-American banjoists {{US-guitarist-stub