Dear Fans,
After eight months, and a very considered decision, this letter is being written
to you from Olivia Franz. Yes, it's me, for truly. Alright, so let's get down to
business. You have picked up this letter with every intension of learning about
our past few months, and I assure you, I will not let you down. We have put this
off for eight months because we knew that your feet are now cold and your lawns
are full of snow and just the mere mention of July means relief to your poor
souls. So! here we begin.

brought to you by Olivia Franz
July found us back in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. A beautiful place to
find yourself. Spruce Lake Retreat, where volleyball ensues and pleasant people
flock. We have some friends out at wilderness camp who convinced us to take the
little journey out for fireside one night. I have to say, those people
definitely know how to do bonfires. We were mesmerized by their dancing skills
and general having-fun capabilities. However, we didn't really consider that it
was going to be dark on the way back and that we had a sort of jungle we had to
travel through to get back to our lodge. We had a friend who was very dedicated
to the well-being of us and borrowed us a flashlight, and thus we embarked on
the dark trek through the woods. In a moment of absent-minded decision making,
we gave the flashlight to Emmett and he spent most of the time testing our
courageousness by turning it off and talking about scary movies where people
find themselves in dark forests with Those-We-Don't-Speak-Of chasing them.
However, through the combination of determination and sheer greatness of mind,
we made it through. I'm sure you're feeling the great relief.
Those couple of weeks we spent traveling around the northeast. Including
Virginia, Vermont, New Jersey, and West Virginia. We also had the opportunity
one night to visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was a fantastic place.
We spent a good four or five hours there, looking at artifacts from Egypt, China
and Rome, paintings from England, etc. It was pretty incredible. I'm sorry to
say, the only thing Dad remembers is that it was very difficult to find a
parking spot. I'm praying for him...
After that we headed back to the midwest, exploring the flatness of Kansas,
Illinois, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Our dear friend, John Stockeland, came up from
Florida for a week to hang with us. Many of you know John and how incredibly
developed his humor is, so I don't even have to mention that it was a fantastic
time...but I will anyway.
The first weekend of August we headed up to Minnesota for the Berge's Bluegrass
Festival. I have to say, it was lovely up there. We always enjoy listening to
other groups, something we don't get to do very often, and meeting fellow
musicians. Caleb and Emmett had the privilege of leading guitar and dobro
workshops, a.k.a teaching other people their tricks. I'm pretty sure they had
fun with it, and I rather enjoyed watching them contribute their brilliance to
society. That next Monday we got the exciting news that Julie had delivered a
baby boy, another Franz, into the world. His name is Hunter Wade, and he is a
chunk! Which is quite surprising after the littleness of Ashlyn. We have really
enjoyed having another man in this family. Dad's already teaching him how to
lift weights.

the Franz family (including Hunter)!
The next week we went back to Iowa and Illinois. Our very dear friends, the
Fry's, have a Boys Ranch in Wilton, IA, and every summer they have a gospel
sing, which they kindly invite us to. It's always so lovely to be with them.
People who serve the Lord with whole hearts. It's inspiring just to walk beside
them. We love you guys!
August 16th presented itself as the beginning of a crazy weekend. We were in
Harrison, Arkansas at a bluegrass festival and on the afternoon of the 18th we
were scheduled to be in Maine. Yes, the state of Maine. If, perhaps, you are
thinking we're insane, you may be quite accurate in your musings. We headed out
of Arkansas at about 10:30 p.m., picked up Amy in Branson, and began our long
excursion to Maine. We drove straight through, and arrived in Massachusetts at 4
a.m. on the 18th for sleep. Got up at 8 a.m. and headed out to Camp Washington
in Washington, ME. Just in case you struggle with the skill of arithmetic, I
will tell you, that was 30 hours in the van. I'm happy to inform you, we all
pulled through famously, and are still on speaking terms. Camp Washington is an
entirely unique place, and we had the unique experience of losing Caleb's thumb
pick to the ground beneath our building. He "accidentally" dropped it and it
rolled into a knot on the floor and we had to give the banjo a rest for four
songs while a few kids and men went crawling underneath the chapel to find it.
Which they did, much to our happiness. I have to say, it added much drama to the
act.
In the weeks following we covered, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. During
those weeks we had the privilege of spending several days performing at Silver
Dollar City in Branson. It was a fabulous time. We had wonderful crowds, despite
the rain, and it was very enjoyable. We absolutely love the staff there at SDC,
they always make us feel so important. Can't beat that.
The end of September the Anders invited us kids to go work at their big event at
the Country Barn in Hastings, Nebraska. So we found ourselves doing odd jobs
such as: working registers, spraying perfume in buildings, serving jellies,
making sandwiches, tearing apart and melting incredibly huge chunks of
Velveeta...all things nice. However, on the weekend we had the privilege of
being forced (by the lovely Miss Marla) into doing a Franz kids concert. She
quite beautifully insisted, and we didn't want to let her down. Frankly, it
wasn't an option. Thus, we put together an hour of new songs. Mostly jazz,
blues, bluegrass, and other acoustical surprises. It ended up being a
surprisingly enjoyable time for us and we were happy for the pressure.
We once again took a trip through the states of Kansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Ohio, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas (again) during the months of
October and November. Which happily brings us to the cheery holidays. We spent
Thanksgiving in Henderson with our families. Hadley, Julie, Ashlyn and Hunter
also joined us up there and we had a very loud and exciting-filled couple of
days in our grandmas' basements, eating food and exchanging dramatic stories.

recording at Skaggs Place
December was a very fun month. We had several concerts in Missouri and Arkansas,
but spent most of our time in Nashville, Tennessee recording a new album. We had
the privilege of recording at Skaggs Place (Ricky Skaggs studio) and working
with our producer Ben Isaacs and engineer Lee Groitzsch. We're very happy with
the way it turned out, and I am delighted to say that it is almost completed.
We're bringing together all the details, and it will be ready for distribution
soon. Thank you to all of you who contributed monetarily to this album, we
couldn't have done it without you. Keep a look out on our website, we'll have it
up there immediately. Or! better yet, come see us in concert and you might even
get a signed copy. Yeah, I know that excites you greatly.
Christmas was a lovely time, as always. We had so many good friends come visit
us, we felt like Christmas was delivering presents daily for four weeks. Thank
you SO much to our beautiful friends who came down. We had about 12 people
around our table every meal for a month, and we miss all your company now that
it's just us.
The fifth of January we had the very great pleasure of playing the music for
Peter and Annie Nelson's wedding in Eureka!, IL. So we pulled out our classical
pieces and our handy-dandy Zach Reinke to put together the tunes. It was a
gorgeous wedding. We even had the first-time experience of having people (other
than little children) dance to our music. We were also given Pete Zobrist as a
sort of slave over the weekend. He followed us around and did our bidding. Oh
yeah, it was awesome.

the Franz' and Zach
The end of January we headed down south. With all the snow and bitter coldness
surrounding us, we really had no choice. We spent a week in Alabama, performing
concerts in churches and prisons. The We Care crusade was another success this
year. It's always such a fantastic time, the inmates are always so happy to see
us, and that does a lot for our egos. Haha. No really, knowing that God is
living in their hearts and watching them love Him is so encouraging.
Then we unavoidably went to Florida. It was too beautiful, we couldn't pass it
by. Sand volleyball, frolicking through the ocean, wearing flip flops, getting a
tan, there is no better winter activity. John Stockeland (once again presenting
himself in this letter) opened up his house to us. Oh, and his roommate, Ryan,
he should be mentioned. So we bunked out there for a few days. Playing dutch
blitz again. Yeah, we can't escape it's grip. And I'm serious, if any of you
have not taken a plunge into the depths of it's fantastic amazingness, you
really should try it out. Although, I'll offer a piece of advice, don't play
Audra until you're feeling very secure in your abilities. She'll wipe up the
deck with you.
Last weekend we spent all over the place, driving through snow storms, playing
concerts, eating Valentine's Day meals, visiting friends, and surprising Hadley
for his birthday. We are now enjoying a couple weekends in the area, relaxing at
home, and catching up with a bunch of work we put off when we're 1,000 miles
from home.
I hope that you have, perhaps, enjoyed this: my rendition of the past eight
months. I also hope that you are enjoying life to the fullest. Don't forget to
take walks and enjoy the green when spring presents itself to us yet again.
I would like to mention, that we have a newly revamped website that is just
fabulous, made by the brilliant Amos Lanka. You will find our merch, this
newsletter, photos, bios, and our schedule, posted on there. You can also sign
up on our website to get alerts by email when something exciting happens, such
as a release of albums, or newsletters, etc. Please do that if you have
internet, it saves a bunch of postage costs for us, and be sure to let us know
so we can take you off our snail mail list.
With Much Love,
Olivia
and the band of Franz
Job 27:2-6
"As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made
me taste bitterness of soul, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God
in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no
deceit. I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my
integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my
conscience will not reproach me as long as I live."