WHO IS JOHNNY DOCK

The most serious nuclear reactor accident to date in the United States occurred on March 28, 1979, at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant outside Middletown, Pennsylvania. Lin and I lived a short distance from the site in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania. We were contemplating whether or not to load up her 69 VW bug and just start driving west. Instead, I sat down and penned this song. We stuck it out. Fortunately the song was worth the stay. 24 years later, we recorded this song produced by Jim Weider with him playing Wawa on his Telecaster. It’s an honor to have this in our collection.

"Nu-Clear" - Cry of Love - Johnny Dock

Johnny just turned 20 years old. Back in 2002 John Franklin had the need and vision to create an alter ego that would allow him to push the boundaries of his Catholic upbringing. It’s not that Johnny Dock is a bad boy, - A phrase John heard commonly from his parents growing up - he just likes to push the boundaries.

Where John Franklin likes to keep his song lyrics about historical stories and relationships, Johnny Dock likes to get political, he likes to poke a stick in the hornet's nest, and he likes to fight. He likes to challenge the norm, the status quo. The everyday approach to survival you might say.

Now that he’s gotten older he’s really taken down his guard. He spent 8 years in exile from the music scene, from 2010 to 2018. Though he couldn’t keep himself from picking up his musical instruments and writing songs. In some ways, the pub he create was like a dungeon where he spent endless hours occupying time with writing and recording the other end of the spectrum is the challenging song Jewish Jesus where Dock brings up that most pictures of Jesus in Anglo-Saxon cultures are of him looking like a white male. Hmmm! And the title song Flat Champagne where he mocks the cocky characters while at a party Johnny gets locked out in the rain and is left drinking Flat Champagne.

The EXILED YEARS body of work was created in the pub that he built on his farm in Floyd county, Virginia. He played all the instruments exemplifying his position of exile. With tremendous lyrical insight while exploring musical realms reminiscent of the 1970s.
Definitely worth a listen!

Play Video

Clip from the Protest recording session.

"Been Around the Corner" - Cry of Love - Johnny Dock

Written by Bruce Blackburn From the book – Bucks County State of Mind

Bucks Countians – have always admired creativity. Playwrights, artists, authors and composers, we’ve had our share maybe it’s something in the water talent and genius seem to breed in our neck of the woods. No surprise, then, that yet another gifted innovator has emerged on the level scene Johnny Dock. If you’ve never heard of him it’s probably because Johnny Dock is a mythical character created by the very real Bucks county farmer, family man, architectural designer and restaurateur John Franklin.

Mojo - True American Hero - Johnny Dock

Johnny Dock’s first CD, True American Hero, was released in January 2004 Johnny Dock is an American songwriter crafting all American music with strains of rock, blues, country and an occasional hint of a good time rockabilly. Contemplation or recreation it’s ideal for either one.

Sun to Shine - Protest - Johnny Dock

Way to San Francisco - Protest - Johnny Dock

Rekindling the dream

Music was Franklin‘s passion in the 70s when he open for acts like Livingston Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, Leon Redbone, Michael Murphy, and many famous others. Along with coming inches within reach of his own record deals. But he’s set aside that lifestyle in order to provide a more secure and consistent economic climate for his wife, Linda Also a musician and family. John, Linda, and their three kids spent the last 20 years working there Bucks county farm raising Scottish highland cattle and making hay. He built a successful career by designing and construction thing unique European style homes with classic old world flair. He has been published in many well-known magazines and just last year got the bug to be a restaurant tour. Franklin took over the Raubsville Inn on the Delaware river and upper bucks, where he created an idea of a perfect intimate performing venue. He found his passion for writing and performing music, once deferred but never lost, rekindled.
Johnny Dock was born fully formed, and he immediately began making music for the people of his creators generation those who had relinquished their early dreams to earn a living and perhaps more pedantic ways for the sake of stability and the love of their families.
Franklin says his songs are tribute to the individuals who sacrificed one set of aspirations for another the quixotic for the more, mundane. “These are the true American heroes“ he proclaims.

The journey

In Johnny Docks Tales, characters don’t always win and endings aren’t always perfect but one thing does exist that is common to all his musical discourse: each one contains insight.
Johnny’s characters are either undergoing a defining moment or have already had one. Either way, the process is one of self discovery, and it’s all about the journey through life and the frustrations and joys we are exposed to on the track. In a word, it’s about experience there’s and ours and we relate to them because we’ve been there, with our bag of dreams and are more quotidian outcomes.
Johnny Dock is a storyteller, and the stories he tells are our own. He writes tales for people who are at the time in their lives when the illusion once sold through early rock and roll beckons again. But not through the same old songs endlessly replayed. Young rock had the guts and the dreams yet liked the experience. Johnny Dock has both, and he puts them together to fill the void that’s opened up in the meantime for a whole generation of music lovers.

Introspective Rock

Today a generation raised on rock ideals six more, they want songs with the power of their youth and the wisdom of perspective. Simple themes eloquently expressed. Stories they recognize and can relate to. Johnny Dock believes they want his new rock, born of his own journeys and passages and seasoned with his own magnetic blend of introspection and exaltation. True American Hero is fresh rock with new introspection‘s of our days at a time when the airwaves are full of untethered lyrics and melodies, Johnny Dock’s music strives to bridge the wide divide between the deferred dreams of classic rock and the realities of existence, and make it all worthwhile. Why has John Franklin created Johnny Dock, an alias persona, to convey his musical missives?

“It’s easier for me to put myself in another person‘s shoes“ he explains. “I see and I hear the stories as I participate instead of the producer of the messages. It’s another point of view that helps make the whole process more meaningful to me, and hopefully more meaningful to others“ for example. But it begs the question: are we hearing the mythical character or the man? Listen and decide.

Play Video

The Exiled Years 2010 to 2018

After exiling himself to the secluded county of Floyd, Johnny Dock, began writing and recording his music in the self-made pub on his farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Virginia.

This is a collection of 21 songs all parts, mostly first takes and recorded as the songs were written .