Rediscovered: Rainy Night Detroit

Denice Franke: Rainy Night Detroit

[purchase] (on the You Don't Know Me CD)

I just presented Texas songwriter Denice Franke in our Labyrinth Cafe concert series this past Saturday night - she was of course amazing and, when she sang the above tune, it brought back vivid memories of the first time I heard it (and her) almost 10 years ago...

I was a preliminary judge for the 2000 South Florida Folk Festival songwriter competition... and it was the job of four of us to listen to two songs each from almost 200 artists and give them a ranking using certain criteria - as one can imagine, in these circumstances, there is more proverbial chaff than wheat...

I will always recall the night one of my fellow judges called me and said: "have you gotten to #72 yet? - this one reminds me why we're doing it". When I did finally get there, I knew immediately what he was talking about - the hair on my arms and neck prickled, a lump in my throat formed and I went straight for the box of tissues...

It was Denice's Rainy Night Detroit - a decade later, the song still wrenches my heart, opens my tear ducts and reminds me how lucky I am, even (or maybe especially) in the dark times...