Published: September 18, 2009 11:37 am      

Franks to perform on Hall of Fame awards show

Appalachian artist Randall Franks will be among the stars to perform on the 31st Annual Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards Show Saturday airing live statewide on Georgia Public Broadcasting beginning in the 8 p.m. hour.

The Friends of Georgia Music Festival Inc. hosts the event at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

Franks, an award-winning fiddler and singer, joins other feature performers including Collective Soul, Third Day and 2007 Scholarship Winner Reginald Smith. He is the first bluegrass performer to appear on the show in 17 years and the second in the TV show’s history.

“I am greatly honored to share in this wonderful evening honoring several of our state’s greats,” Franks said. “I am especially excited to be there on the night they honor John L. “Johnny” Carson. He and Phyllis Cole have done so much to recognize and encourage Georgia’s traditional bluegrass performers. I am blessed to be one of those.”

He said he will perform his award-winning original song “The Old Black Fiddle,” which reflects the Appalachian tradition of story songs.

The song expands on the back-story of the fiddle played in the fabled tale that Charlie Daniels spun into his “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Franks will be backed by the Georgia Mafia Bluegrass Band including Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame members Jerry and Helen Burke, J. Max McKee, Rick Smith and Dean Marsh. The group is the 2009 ASE Bluegrass Band of the Year.

Franks is also an actor known for his role “Officer Randy Goode” from TV’s “In the Heat of the Night” and for his work in films such as “The Flamingo Rising” with William Hurt and “Phoenix Falling” with Stella Parton and “Blue Valley Songbird” with Dolly Parton.

This annual Atlanta gala supports Friends of Georgia Music Festival’s mission to nurture the music industry in Georgia. The inductees during the awards show include post-grunge rock band, Collective Soul; Grammy winner Third Day; music promoter, Peter Conlon; Grammy winning songwriter Bryan-Michael Cox; music industry pioneer John L. Carson; the late singer and songwriter, Roy Hamilton; the late record executive, Shakir Stewart; and the late bass guitarist Berry Oakley.

Franks’ musical career boasts 14 album releases, 15 singles and more than 200 recordings with artists from various genres. The fiddler’s best selling release, "Handshakes and Smiles" was a top 20 Christian music seller. Many of his albums were among the top 30 bluegrass recordings of their release year. The Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame member shared a top country vocal collaboration with Grand Ole Opry stars The Whites. In addition to his solo career, Franks is a former member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys and Jim and Jesse's Virginia Boys and has performed with Jeff and Sheri Easter, The Lewis Family, the Marksmen Quartet, Elaine and Shorty, “Doc” Tommy Scott’s Last Real Old Time Medicine Show, Watkins Family and Doodle and the Golden River Grass.