FrannyOShow

Fran O’Connell was a very competitive basketball player up until he turned 51 years old. Then, due to the consequences of aging and infirmity, he decided (in consultation with his doctor, physical therapist, and family) that he was going to have to find himself a less physically taxing hobby.

Having been a lifelong musical enthusiast, he decide that picking up the Bass would be a good idea, because it would involve music, and he thought it would be an easy instrument to master. Only four strings and you get to stand in the background. He started taking Bass lessons, started playing it, and found out he didn’t like it.

Discouraged but not thwarted, he picked up his daughter’s acoustic guitar one day along with the book Guitar for Dummies and started playing a little and didn’t stop for 24 hours straight! Then it was “Off to the races!”. He went to adult guitar camp with Jorma Kaukonen and, despite being, as he puts it, “The worst guitarist there”, he started to make progress.

Leveraging his talent for writing songs, he kept at his guitar work and started playing out at local bars in the Holyoke neighborhoods. His musician friends, thinking that this would be possibly the funniest thing they ever saw, started showing up to catch the shows, mainly to heckle him. One day, Richie Adelson, a noted local musician, came and saw the show, watched Fran play, and then came up and said, “Well it’s true, you really can’t play or sing, but I like your songs and I think I can help you.”

Thus beganith the Franny O Show.

Over the next few months, Fran, with Richie’s help, got better at playing and singing. First a bass player was added, then a guitarist and then into what it has evolved into today.

In addition to Fran himself, singing, playing guitar, and blowing on the harmonica, the Franny O Show occasionally sees the likes of Tony Marvici on Guitar, Richie Adelson on Drums, Steve Grout on Bass, Jen Gelineau on fiddle and James Robinson on guitar.