Sonoma musician profile: Frankie Bourne

What does a person do when you have ‘70s music streaming through your brain constantly, but also words flowing out of you like water from a faucet? Do you become a screenwriter, or do you set your sights on becoming a musician?

Frankie Bourne has been faced with that life dilemma. “I am an old soul, raised on my dad’s music.” Bourne is working the music thing, in answer to that question, but the path was not quite exactly direct.

Now a happy resident of Sonoma, Bourne was “raised in West Marin, Grateful Dead-head country.” He drove several miles to school daily in his prized burgundy colored 1970 Chevy Chevelle, graduating from Sir Francis Drake High in 2006. Steeped in song, he enrolled in the School of Film and Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz. His hours of hitting the books were tempered by hours playing the guitar and writing songs.

Upon graduation, Bourne headed to entertainment Mecca, otherwise known as Los Angeles, California. While there, he worked and played, trying to gain a foothold in one of his two worlds.

While in the writer’s world, he interned in the business, and wrote a multi-episode TV show that he pitched to HBO, Showtime, and FX. “Nobody bought it,” Bourne lamented. He also worked on a few movies and wrote three more screenplays that “are on the back burner.”

Through all the trials of show biz, he continued to write songs. He recorded a 10-song CD called “Californicana,” released in 2015. Included on that CD is a song called “21st Century,” which was named “Best Love Song” on the Jango Radio Valentine’s Day playlist of 2015.

He landed with a rotating group of musicians from the USC Jazz program and started to play more regularly. Coffee houses and small bars in Venice and Santa Monica became his places of expression. His shows got good, real good, but “it was never a steady lineup of dudes.”

“It was difficult to make a dent down there, so much talent. I was looking to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond,” Bourne said. He packed up and moved to Sonoma in January of 2017. “I decided I needed to work on my live game,” Bourne thought. It was then that Sonoma residents began to understand and appreciate the talented Bourne.

Bourne was ready to hit the studio to record his new batch of songs. He chose the legendary Prairie Sun Studio in Cotati, but the studio time came at a high price. The Chevelle that got him around during his early days “was totally unnessessary” and was sold to pay for the project.

The new Frankie Bourne CD is called “Wildcards,” which is also the name of his back-up band. The songs accurately represent Bourne’s “alt-country” sensibilities, and showcase his strong lyrical abilities, too.

This is his third album, and the first that he produced himself.

The songs are guitar driven, keyboard rich, and rock pretty hard. His influences are evident throughout, with smatterings of Tom Petty and Wilco. One song is titled “Valley of the Moon”, and a standout single release is called “Listen to the Summer Rain.”

The gentleman who handled the keyboard duties on the recording is Matt Piazza, who doubles as the general manager of HopMonk Sonoma. The two musicians met at the open mics that Piazza holds at HopMonk. They got to talking one night, “Wait a minute, you like the Black Crowes?” and Bourne knew he had found his keyboard player.

Bourne is currently busy setting up gigs for the summer season. He will be out with the full band, and also possibly with a smaller, acoustic ensemble.

Bourne will bring that acoustic band in to play next Saturday, March 14, at Murphy’s Irish Pub, during its “March Alley Madness” day. The intimate space there will give listeners a great chance to hear this strong local talent.

Big rock band or smaller acoustic version, Bourne is a local act not to miss.