Singer, Songwriter, Storyteller – “Big Frank” Waddell
Story by MARY ELLEN THOMPSON
Photography by JOHN WOLLWERTH
Standing at a height of 6’6” “Big Frank” Waddell commands attention as well as space. With a certain astute thoughtfulness, Frank reveals himself piece by piece, often with an oblique sense of humor. When he sings the songs he has written, you can watch the feelings play across his face as he reminisces about his travels and life experiences. As he says, “A big part of playing is the emotion that goes into the music. I have songs that will bring a tear to your eye, they bring a tear to my own eye.
“I love story songs; one of my favorites is Stand on God’s Word. I met a woman sitting in a rocking chair and she told me about her life: Her mama died giving birth to her and her daddy held it against her. Her daddy got drunk a lot and was mean to her. She spent time in church to escape him. One day she got a Bible and hid it under the floorboards in the house. When her daddy yelled at her she would stand on that part of the floor over where the Bible was hidden because, in church, the preacher had told the congregation to ‘Stand on God’s word,’ and she took that literally.”
Frank grew up in Greer SC. After high school he joined the Air Force where he was in aircraft maintenance until his retirement in 2004. Since then “Big Frank” has been traveling the world writing songs, telling stories and bringing joy to all who listen. It didn’t start out that way; “I grew up singing lots of gospel music in church choirs. But when I was a little boy I didn’t want to sing, I wanted to play ball. My mother was reading the paper one day and she saw an announcement for the Kiwanis Boys Choir. ‘I’m going to sign you up,’ she told me and my brother. My brother went into the auditions, I hid in the bathroom. He went outside afterwards and I followed him; my mother came to pick us up and he told her I had hidden in the bathroom. She grabbed me by the ear and took me back inside. The choirmaster played a note on the piano and had me sing the note, one after another. My brother and I both got into the choir. There I was – not wanting to sing, my mom made me go, and a month later I was singing on the local kiddie
television show!”
Obviously something about the music appealed to him because he bought his first guitar when he was sixteen. “I was in high school and working in the textile mill when I heard about this moonshiner who had an old guitar for sale. I drove up the dirt road of Glassy Mountain, and found him next to a box of empty paint cans, spray painting a truck turquoise. I told him that I’d heard he had a guitar for sale, he went inside and brought it out. I asked him to play it then asked him the price. He wanted $27, which I had in my wallet. I gave him the money and he told me ‘This guitar has been on this mountain for a long time. I’ve owned it three times, the last time I traded a washing machine for it.’ Now that area is a gated community of millionaires.
“I taught myself to play, and I wrote my first song, Daddy’s Got Soul, for and about my daddy, in 1972. There were a lot of things about soul at that time; if you looked at soul as integrity and character, then my daddy had soul. I dedicated Mothers Day Song to my mother. The Christmas Miracle is a true story about when I was a boy at a 5 and dime or 10 Cent Store, as they were called, I realized I had only a penny left and still had not bought my youngest sister Jill her gift. Being Christmas Eve and I only had 50 cents to start with, I sadly put the penny in the gum ball machine and instead of the candy or gum falling out, a pin made of rhinestones laid out in cursive writing spelling ‘Jill’ came out. I had it wrapped and gave that to her the next morning. There were six children in our family, but we didn’t get one musical thing from our daddy. My older brother is a career Minister of Music, my younger sister sings in church. When we were little, my sister used to play the piano and the other five of us would gather around and sing.” In the intervening years, Frank has recorded three CD’s that he calls “Family Folk,” which include many of the songs he has written about his family, his daughter Mindy, son Frankie, and grandchildren Parker and Sheldon.
Frank came to St. Helena Island in 2005, “I came to the area from Charleston looking for a second home for a weekend get away. I fell in love with Lands End, wrote a check the first day I went there and closed two weeks later. For a while, I did keep a home in Mt. Pleasant, but after about a year I got rid of it and made St. Helena my home.”
With friends Carroll Brown and Michael Reno Harrell, “Big Frank” performed to a full theater this March in “Song Writers in the Round” at Artworks in Beaufort. In that kind of setting, Frank explains that “I play whatever comes into my mind. It depends on whatever the others are playing, I don’t want people to cry at two songs in a row. I have a list of songs taped to the back of my guitar but when I’m sitting in the middle, bookended by two other musicians, I decide on the spot what to play next.” But you won’t find Frank singing his heart out to a room full of people who aren’t paying attention: “If I’m going to play and nobody’s going to listen, I’ll just stay home. I’ve got a nice Lazy-Boy recliner. When you’re singing about your life, it’s humiliating when people don’t pay attention. I may sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but it’s different with age – you have to know how to enjoy yourself.
“I wrote a song, Let the Free Bird Fly, to which people in the audience in a folk club in Scotland just start to sing along in the final chorus. It gave me cold chills to hear one of my creations that they’re so into that they couldn’t sit quiet. I also like to play songs like Marty Robbins’ El Paso – I play a lot of stuff that other people don’t play any more. I’m part of a very large songwriters group in Charleston, SC.” Mostly he plays his own story songs, many of which are deeply embedded by scriptures once heard in those early gospel singing days, but he also favors writing Americana folk and comedy songs. With a wry smile, Frank admits “A couple of years ago I wouldn’t sing karaoke; I thought I was too good for that, after all I was a professional singer! Then I met a woman who told me the only fun she had was singing karaoke. Because I had been judgmental and critical, I realized I could have a blast singing karaoke; now I look forward to it – I just have fun!”
Music is often the center point of Frank’s travels. Recently, Frank went to Branson, MO where he went to seventeen shows in seven days; and on a road trip to Alaska, he wrote four songs along the way. He’s played in Costa Rica, England, and Canada, but Scotland is one of his favorite places. Frank also has plans to play in a songwriters group this June in Nashville, TN in a venue similar to the Bluebird Cafe.
Comfortable with his many rich and varied interests and talents, Frank can often be found in the swimming pool at the YMCA when he is not singing or writing. He finds swimming therapeutic both mentally and physically. He says he “takes spells with cooking and reading;” a favorite author is David Baldacci and his taste in books runs towards history. However, in addition to his CD’s, Frank has also written a book about his family history which took him to three states for research and ten years to write. He is currently working on two essay collections of short stories entitled “If Old Guns Could Talk” and “If Old Guitars Could Talk.”
At home in the kitchen, Frank loves to describe his kitchen creations – he will put an assortment of whatever is in his cupboards into the crockpot and concoct a unique feast. His favorite television show is Gunsmoke; however, he says, “When I was in the Air Force, everyone was sports oriented. I could watch game after game after game. But now in the second part of my life, I only watch football, baseball, or basketball in the play-offs, and NASCAR in the last ten laps.”
Someone who takes good care, Frank is not only thoughtful, kind, and generous, but also keenly observant. It is as if he digests his experiences and emotionally processes them until he can present them in a vernacular that is familiar and without pretense. Some of his songs are true, some are spiritual, some silly, others funny; and then there are those, that as the lyrics reveal themselves, make you feel like you are opening a gift. First and foremost a fascinating orator, “Big Frank” Waddell has a resonating deep baritone voice that is a joy to hear, whether sung or spoken.
