About

Frank Drake is, by trade, a musician. He's been playing bluegrass, rock, and whatever doesn't fit a label for most of his adult life. Writing happened sideways.

The prose started as an attempt to write memoirs — a word he finds faintly ridiculous given that he hasn't survived a bear attack or lost everything to meth. But he has a life full of stories, and at some point he started writing them down. The biographical pieces here are those stories: mostly true, occasionally embellished where memory failed, and written for no one in particular — though initially with his son in mind.

The essays are something else. Opinions he couldn't keep to himself. He has thoughts about the economy, about politics, about the things people get wrong. Whether you agree is beside the point.

The poetry showed up when prose felt too explanatory.

He lives in the Boston area, plays too many instruments, and has been running a bluegrass jam at The Burren in Somerville for sixteen years. If you found the writing first, the music is at music.frankdrake.org.