THE FRANZ FAMILY - LUKE 9:2

Oct 24, 2008

Hello dear fans and friends across the way.

I woke up this morning to temperatures in the 50s, I made myself a cup of raspberry quince tea distributed by The Republic of Tea - a gift to me for my birthday - and have now curled up on my own couch, ready to acquaint you with the latest happenings of the Franz Family.

--we found a hole in the hedge

I will begin with the telling of an extremely irregular and unsuspected incident that we experienced towards the second half of March. We were scheduled to sing in a church in Clay City, Illinois on Friday evening at 7 p.m. It was right after the first of several crazy storms we had in the midwest, and the rivers were rushing! It just so happened that the whole south of St. Louis was mostly underwater, the river rising within feet of I-44. We came to be literally sitting on the interstate for two hours with no movement, while men rushed putting up sandbags trying to keep the water off the interstate. Once we got going again we still had a couple hours to our destination and, unless the van suddenly sprouted wings and began flying, we were going to be late. Not just delayed but, quite literally, late. For our own concert! We arrived in Clay City at ten minutes after 7, we drove in the parking lot and immediately there were about six guys ready to help us bring our stuff in, and two hundred people waiting for a concert. They were all entirely friendly and forgiving, although I'm sure it was quite an experience to arrive at a concert before the band and watch them set all their equipment up. I do know that it was quite an experience for the band to arrive after their audience and have them all watch them set up. I happen to love these sort of situations though, so I was having a great time. The hits kept coming, as well, throughout the weekend. Audra had her car along, and as we were walking into Applebee's Caleb nonchalantly said "Audra, your car's rolling away." We all turned and watched little Audra run after her car and try to stop it by pulling on the door handle. Everyone in Applebee's was watching and laughing. Oh the surprising joys life chances upon us.

We spent the majority of March and April in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Missouri. We even had the opportunity to play at the chapel service at Mid American Christian University. It's always such an adventure playing for college students. You never know what to expect, I rather enjoy the suspense, and they received us happily.

the little franz'

The first week of May started with The National Day of Prayer in Berryville. Then we headed towards Tennessee. Ah, now that is a place I could really get used to. It's just beautiful, and everything was freshly green, you really can't beat the hills and the southern accents. Plus, they all totally get bluegrass music! We stopped in Illinois and Indiana the next weekend, then Audra and I flew from St. Louis out to Philly to visit some very dear friends of ours--the Martins--in Manheim, Pennsylvania. The Martins are dairy farmers, actually they farm all sorts of things, I think, and they happen to have a numerous family. There were about sixteen of us at every meal, just to give you a visual. It was one of the most pleasant weeks of my year. They even allowed us to help with the milking. I'm fairly certain I handled it all with great dignity, astonishing, isn't it? We actually had many first experiences during this week, they took us to a real market, where we bought tomatoes and grapes and these really pretty pink flowers, also Josh happened to dump me in the creek during our 4-wheeler ride, in the dark. Nothing like good old farm fun...that leaves your back scraped up and black soil lodged into your skin. Contrary to popular belief I harbor no bitterness against him. The fifteenth of May delivered to us our new album! 'The Tale You'll Never Hear' was brought to the masses. If you have not picked it up, absolutely do! It is available now on our website, also you may download it on iTunes. But I have to say, the artwork is pretty stellar, so you might want to get a real copy from our website or, better yet, a live concert of the Franz Family. The remainder of May brought us to Michigan, some of us to Colorado and some of us to Missouri, and then to Henderson, Nebraska for the first week of June.

We then took our cousin Maggie along with us on our northern trip. What a fantastic way to kick off the summer. It was our Crazy Tour, that's what I titled it, and I wrote down in my notebook where we were each night at 6 p.m. just to astonish ourselves in years to come when we look back and say "What were we thinking?!" We started in Iowa and then made our way up to Minnesota, and on Monday we drove through the wilderness and woods in upper Michigan. We stopped at Mackinac Island and took a bike trip around the island. Oh my dear friends, you absolutely must frequent that place at some time in your life. It is so quaint and unaffected. Although, we did stop at a Starbucks, which may be a bit of the modern world coming into play. Maybe. Tuesday we made our way to Rexville, New York, quite an unbelievable jaunt. Wednesday we went to Alexandria Bay where the Thousand Islands are. We have visited this place before, and we really wanted Maggie to see it. I should tell you about Maggie. Maggie is Mom's sister's only daughter. She's fourteen this year, and just starting high school. She has a lovely sense of humor and we like having her around, and wearing her out with our schedule. Alright, back to our location.

sometimes we peek out of castle basements
News from the Franz'

There is a castle at the Thousand Islands which will just take one's breath away. This is another place you must visit in your lifetime. I've just realized this newsletter could really be a nice vacation getaway advertisement, although, you might want to spend more than a few hours in one place, unlike us. Thursday night we were in Vermont. What a lovely place! These people warm my heart. The church was packed, and absolutely enthused about watching us. It was a fabulous concert, one of my favorites of the summer. On Friday we headed to Maine, another unbelievably charming place. We played a concert for them and they fed us lobster. What a swap! Who could possibly grumble about that? No one, I dare say. Saturday morning we hiked out to a beautiful lighthouse and practically ran back, we needed to get to Connecticut for the night. We spent the weekend in Connecticut and New York with all the people! It's like an entire country lives out there. Sunday night a man from the church volunteered to take us to experience NYC at night, he said that city never sleeps, and he proved to be right. We drove all around town, the traffic was much better at 2 a.m., just so you know, and saw the city in all its mid night splendor. We arrived at our beds at 5 a.m., I looked out the window in dismay as I climbed into bed and saw the first flickers of sunlight creeping over the sky. We hit the road at 10 a.m., after grazing over the wonderful array of coffee our hosts laid out for us, and took a couple days getting home. And that sums up our Crazy Tour.

We had the pleasure of spending the Fourth of July in the mountains of Colorado. I have a thing for the mountains. I could gaze at them for hours. We sang at a community event that evening and ended our set with "Holding Out For A Hero" and at the very end they'd started shooting off the fireworks and everyone was screaming and it really was a glorious moment for us. Also, it just so happened that it was very dry out there and the mountain started on fire five times. No kidding. So there were several time-outs for the distinguishing of the fires. It was a beautiful display though.

D.C., Franz' and Amy Willems

July brought us our second northeastern tour of the summer, and we again took upon us a seventh member of our troupe. Amy Willems, who is the sister of Julie (Hadley's wife) decided to take a travel with us. She is a lovely person, her surprised laugh, especially, is quite a favorite of mine. We started that weekend in Pennsylvania. We had a couple of days free so we went and walked around Washington D.C. for the afternoon. So much history there, so much to look at. Then we went down to Virginia where we took a fishing trip down the Jackson River on kayaks and canoes. I also learned that I didn't know as much about steering a canoe as I thought I did. However, I did catch on and Audra and I quite happily survived, despite many hints (collision with rocks) to the contrary. We then spent the remainder of the weekend up in New York and Pennsylvania. Playing lots of volleyball and bluegrass.

When we got back we started practicing wedding music pretty hardcore. Our cousin Lance married a dear girl named Kirsten on August 16th, and they asked us to play the music for it. It was a wide variety of music; classical, country, praise and worship, a soundtrack score, and some bluegrass, of course. We had a lot of fun with it. Also, Hadley and his family came up for it and we got to spend time with them. As you can imagine, those two little ones bring a substantial amount of happiness to our lives. Also, the Olympics were on. Holy smokes, they were incredible this year! We had so much fun watching them. It was intense. And then they were done, and we tried to discover how we were supposed to be content with watching "America's Got Talent" after that display. Then realized it was impossible.

The last week of August we journeyed up to Wisconsin for our last long trip of the summer. Although, it didn't seem very much like summer up there. We did get in another fishing trip, much to Dad's delight, and we caught a shocking quantity! Audra and I cast out in the front of the boat and were reeling in blue gill like they were going out of style. It was a very satisfying feeling. Also, a few of us caught some northern pike. After having two full meals of fish (which we caught), it was absolutely decided that it was a fabulous way to spend a day. We lodged in a little cabin out by the lake and spent our evenings playing uno and putting puzzles together. It was a very relaxing few days.

dear friends
News from the Franz'

The next few weeks we spent in Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri helping Hadley and Julie on their new house, playing music, and enjoying life as a whole. Last week we played at Calvary Bible College for their chapel service on Monday, and Jake Willems came and played some banjo with us. Then a couple friends came home with us, it was my birthday week, and a very beautiful one at that. The Ozarks are so enjoyable this time of year. The crisp air, the crunch of the fallen leaves, the blue, blue skies; the morning walks can't be bested. I hope you all embrace the beauties of watching the seasons change, and enjoy the movement and steadiness of our Lord. Much love to you on this October day.

Olivia--

and the band of Franz

Oct 24, 2008

Praises	Prayers
"The Tale You'll Never Hear" Worldwide airplay A garage to park in Good health and great travels Holidays around the corner	New Trailer Funds to finish garage Song Writing Funds for next recording New venues and full schedule

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