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Remembering Frank Delaney

Frank Delaney

  Longtime program producer, volunteer and past staff member Frank Delaney passed away on Feb. 7, 2016.

When Frank Delaney was in the Navy, he was stationed in the Deep South in the early 1960’s -- the era when many of the great musicians who had recorded in the 1920s were being rediscovered.  This was his first introduction to traditional American folk and blues music. He spent more than half a century loving, researching, and playing this music.  

Frank joined Spokane Public Radio in 1982 and produced The Backwater Blues Show. He put his professional training as a computer support specialist and programmer to work for SPR first with the station’s bookkeeping, then as a commentator. His weekly Raw Bytes was a regular feature of Wednesday mornings until he took a medical hiatus November 2015.

While producing The Backwater Blues Show after interviewing guitarist John Fahey, Frank attempted to contact the family of the bluesman Mississippi John Hurt without success. Then in 2004, almost 20 years later in the age of the Internet, a serendipitous event put him in contact, and he became the webmaster for the Hurt website. In 2006 he journeyed to Avalon Mississippi to play at Hurt’s Blues Festival and to do interviews and research.

Frank and his partner Roger Gibbs – (The Parchmen) - played the blues for 25 years at all local clubs and festivals. Frank also taught classes on the blues and several guitar styles for Spokane Parks & Recreation. A sample of his playing and singing is online at YouTube.

Frank was also a songwriter, a musician, traveler, movie maker and explorer. He is fondly remembered for his wide-ranging interests as well as the love of the station and its listeners.