(4CD)
BIOGRAPHY
The Biner family relocated to Evanston, Illinois in 1965. Frank began his entertainment career in the 1966 in Chicago working with the The Little Boy Blues, a legend of those hallowed times, opening show for various acts coming through town.
He migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late sixties where he met blues legend, Mike Bloomfield, formerly of the Butterfield Blues Band and The Electric Flag. Like many a visiting midwesterner, he found the atmosphere and climate so appealing that he determined never to leave.
As early as 1971, Frank was working various nightclubs and KSAN Radio
"Live Performance" with Bloomfield. Indeed he has stayed, and although his
social roots are now firmly planted in the hills of Orinda, his musical
roots still draw sustenance from those earthy, heady, bluesy Chicago
days.
On arriving in the Bay Area, Frank quickly established himself in the
East Bay Funk scene, with regular gigs at the Long Branch and Keystone,
clubs that were then in their prime and serving up a rich variety of fresh
talent. Here he shared many a booking with the likes of Tower of Power,
Eddie Money and Clover (featuring Huey Lewis), and also began his long and
fruitful collaboration with Steve 'Doc' Kupka and Emilio Castillo of Tower
of Power. This netted him three songs on the Tower album "In The Slot,"
and two more on the next Tower album "Ain't Nothin' Stoppin Us Now" (Frank
also sang background vocals on both of these LP's).
Late in the night after one of their Long Branch gigs, Frank, Doc and
Mimi penned a beautiful little ballad called "As Simple As That". This gem
was recorded for at least three Tower album projects, getting axed each
time, before finally landing many years later as the last song on Side B
of the Huey Lewis album "Fore!," becoming a popular single off this album
in England as well, selling some six million copies worldwide. Again,
collaborating with Mike Bloomfield, Frank recorded lead vocals on the song
"Maudie" on Bloomfield's "Life In The Fast Lane" LP.