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Somewhere in the state of Illinois there sits a house that wax built.
When you glance up at it, it doesn't appear to be any different than the other white ranch-style houses laid out in the alcove, but stepping through the door reveals another story.
It covers four walls, fills six bookcases, and defines one life. It is Frank Black's record collection consisting of 9,750 45 RPMs and 3,000 albums. There is nothing unusual about a person having a collection of favored knick-knacks but, given enough leeway, the collection and the person will become intertwined. This has happened to Frank.
"They define him, define his outlook on life because it's such a big mix--define the different interests over the years," says Marilyn Black, Frank's wife of 29 years. "They're such a part of Frank, if they were sold, it would be like cutting away a part of him."
The collection began when Frank and his eighth-grade sweetheart, Patty Parkhurst, would catch the bus into Knoxville, Tennessee, from the growing suburbs to the local record shop. There he would scan through the records featuring the hip new rockabilly sound of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Frank bought an original Elvis "Sun" recording with "the pretty little thing". If she hadn't moved across town, Frank recalls, he still might be in Tennessee.
The collection picked up steam when the station manager of WSXT, Jay Neely, would give him some of the new, controversial records of Elvis and company as payment for sweeping up the station's floors. Neely's station didn't have air time for the new sound among its format of Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby records, but Frank had a spot open on his RCA turntable that could only play 45s.
With the advent of compact discs, the vinyl 45s went the way of old 78s. However, Frank didn't embrace the new technology, preferring to quit with one collection and not begin another. Occasionally, another old 45 will find its way to the mailbox, but those times are few and far between.
It wasn't until Christmas of 1993 that a compact disc player finally made its way into the entertainment center in the living room. Frank's excuse for purchasing the new technology was that he needed to listen to the new blues recordings for his radio program; Over the last 20 years, he has been transformed every Friday & Saturday night into Delta Frank, the Blues Doctor on WGLT 89.1 FM and 103.5 in Peoria, Illinois State University's public radio station.
His radio program features rhythm and blues music from the past and present. The artists he spins include names like Chester Burnett, Eddie Hudson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin Wolf, and Little Walter -- names not readily recognizable in your average Central Illinois household, but names that rumble through the mind out of the mouth of Frank Black like the Mississippi River rolls through the heartland and out the delta.
"This is root swamp blues music. Lightning Slim -- he's king of the swamp blues. See, he was a one-man band. He would play guitar, play foot board. And playing harp -- who was it? -- Schoolboy Cleve. This is blues. Hell with this stuff today."
Frank can be heard Fridays from 8 p.m. until midnight. and Saturdays from 8 p.m. until midnight on 89.1 FM and 103.5 FM in Peoria.