I listened to Grand Ole Opry on the radio every week. Patsy Cline I admired so much, too. I remember crying during my childhood when I heard she'd been killed in a plane crash.
Elvis Presley was the biggest influence, all around, of my interest in singing. I used to sing along with his records, standing in front of a mirror in my bedroom. I did this every chance I had, often for hours each day, once I had done my chores. I was my own audience, performing in front of that mirror.
I credit my mother, Gertrude Hawkins, with my writing ability, and my ability to read by the time I was about three years old. We used to lie on the sofa, when she could catch up on her farm work and house work enough to rest and read to me. Especially "The Night Before Christmas," in which the entire book is rhyming. I could read it from cover to cover myself, and, by Sixth Grade, if not earlier, I was a poet. By Seventh Grade I was so prolific at writing very good poetry, my Seventh Grade teacher read my work to our class.
My teacher was Alice M. Inge. This wonderful lady took me to our town's newspaper office, praised my talent, and asked them to hire me as a writer. I worked as a columnist for five years, writing weekly columns about my choice of subjects, from news to suggesting creative places for our young people to have activities, and often incorporating poetry into my columns.
I did not have a guitar until my mid twenties. A few years later, I began singing in a large Greek restaurant named "The Golden Zeus," approximately forty miles from my hometown. People came from about a hundred miles away to hear me sing my own songs and play guitar.
A couple from a club in the same town, who sang at a college hotspot in town came to hear me; they had heard about my performance from other people. They bought me champagne, asked me to sit with them, and asked me to come perform with them, but I declined. I was a solo act.
A wealthy philanthropist offered to buy a trailer and set me up in Nashville, if I would go there to make it. I should absolutely have gone. I would certainly have become wealthy selling the songs I wrote, if not as a singer - probably both.
I was afraid to take the chance. The offer came from a very respectable person, and I think I just didn't yet trust myself to make the right business decisions; I was afraid of being taken advantage of once I relocated to Nashville - afraid personally and professionally.
I fell in love while working at the Golden Zeus. Leaving behind a second very bad marriage, my new love took me to New York with him. He was the love of my life, Nicholas Katsoyannos, the father of my oldest daughter, Scarlet Green. I took years off from singing publicly and raised my family, continued to write songs and poetry prolificly.
I was one of the poets from all over the world honored for my poetry in Washington, D.C. [District of Columbia], where I received a plaque for my work, and where I was asked to contribute my writing to the World's Largest Poem For Peace, alongside the writing of President Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama in the same poem. Johnny Cash and June Carter sang in honor of us who were receiving poetry awards. That was one of the greatest thrills of my life time, as I had always loved their work.
Florence Henderson awarded us and took photos with the honorees, and also sang for us. I had loved her from an early age also.
I sang publicly only once in the late 'Nineties, still busy caring for family, my wonderful, beautiful, sweet daughters, Scarlet and Libertad Green. I continued writing prolifically, songs and poetry, and recording some, alone, and sometimes accompanied on guitar by my former, second husband, James L. Green, who accompanies me on guitar or organ in most of my recordings these last years. We have worked together on music so many years that we are able to read each other musically. In the past year or two, I have been blessed with the ability to make up my lyrics as I go. I will think of a lyric and ask him to follow, picking up the music from my singing, that I can hear inside my head, or he will play a few bars, and I will start immediately thinking of lyrics, and we rush to record right then.
I can think of complete songs as I go, and he follows my singing, and sometimes he will take the music to a different place and I match that with my voice and lyrics. While the marriage didn't work (it was over in about six months), we make beautiful music each alone or together.
I admire most the singer Janis Joplin, there was no one ever to compare. When she was alive, I pretty much only heard her sing "Bobbi McGee," which is a terrific song, and she sung it well. I used to sing it. Kris Kristofferson wrote it, a wonderful writer and singer. But most of Janis' other songs (especially the ones she wrote) had so much feeling, they gave you thrills and chills, especially if you know of her personal story.
Amy Winehouse was the next best - most unique after Janis. Her voice was so unique, her songs so deep in meaning... I hate that they died from drugs - such a waste.
I don't believe in drugs. I do believe that we can take all that's great to the world that they had to offer the world - all the great work they did, ignoring anything that we don't like that they did, like drugs. We have to realize, we don't like everything about anyone - even our own loved ones. So many other entertainers with so much to give the world we've lost that way! Let's just pray that others don't fall prey to that.
Lately, I'm most inspired by Raul Malo. God what a voice!!!
And Lady Gaga! I watched her performance for Bill and Hillary Clinton - unbelievable talent! Celine Deon! Adele! Wow!!! For style Cher, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton!!!
I never wanted to be like anyone else. I liked to be different. Those ladies were particularly like that; each wanted to be different.
Aaron Neville, so handsome and such a unique voice! I adore his work.
I cannot forget Roy Orbison, who had perhaps the most gifted voice of all males. I loved him. Oh, my God, George Jones!!! Wow!!! Conway Twitty!!! Lionel Ritchie!!! Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette - so good!!!
The first song I ever sang with a guitar was by Willie Nelson!!! So much talent!! "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain"!
I fell in love with one of my first loves to "Wild Thing," a great never outdated song by the fabulous Chip Taylor, who is singing and playing even better and better all the time. He has a new album coming out right now, which has one of my favorites in it; I think it's titled "F*** All the Perfect People." His work has such feeling for all people; he knows that all people are important, and he shows that in his work; he transcends the labels of levels of society that so many people people do put labels on. God bless you for that, Chip Taylor!
I hope and believe that my songs express a lot of what we all feel at times in our life - great love, a tiny bit of happiness, and so much pain and heartbreak!
I have always been about love and never about money. I have empathy for other people's pain to my own detriment. Besides my own pain, I feel other people's pain too much. I have had my heart broken so many times in my life! I put family first, though they may not all realize that.
I have not had a long lasting personal love, but I have known great love a few times in my life. I've come to believe I will never find a true, lasting love in my life, and maybe that is what God put me here for, after all, to speak to and for all the lonely and broken hearts out there in this world. The depth and feeling in my work this last year especially, cannot come from me. It flows so quickly that we can record it the first time it's sung, making up the lyrics as I go - hardly ever a pause - that has to come from God. Who can do that? Maybe a few people - an occasional one made up on the spot, but so many one behind the other in one session? I like to think I have talent, and that I am somewhat intelligent, but this is too many, too deep, and partly because they come from the heart, but this has to be God giving me the words and voice to express for all the broken hearts the pain they cannot express in words themselves. And may all the broken hearts be comforted, knowing others share their pain. Even most of the happy songs I sing are sad.
[Frances intends to start posting her music videos on YouTube this month. Please visit her official fan page at]:
www.facebook.com/franceshawkinsgreen
Edited by William Mortensen Vaughan
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