FRANK WESTCOTT
Photo by Janet Head, April 2007
Frank Westcott is a multi-talented, multi-faceted singer, songwriter, composer, entertainer, and musician. He is also a writer of fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry for both children and adults. With over 140 songs written for his personal songwriting catalogue, singing is his greatest joy. His songs range from show tune-ish to children's to pop to folk to just plain old happy songs and plain old story telling songs. Other than his love for his family, Frank loves to perform & sing his songs more than anything else in the world.
Some of Frank's songs and his voice can be heard on demo CDs:
FLY TO ME IN THE SUN
Each song by Frank except Nothin’ Compares written by Michael Hanson for Frank.
The tracks are: Let's Get Agoin', Goin' on a Stroll, What'd I See, Eagles Flyin' to Their Destiny, *Nothin' Compares, My Room, Eagles Ridin' Skywaves, Love-Love-Love, Fly to Me in the Sun, You Walk with Me All the Way, Ghostly Haunting Sea.
AS I AM
This demo contains nine, often humorous, songs: THE BUTT SONG, AS I AM, WIGGLES, ME & MY BABY , WHAT'S THAT SWINGIN' ?, ARE YOU SAD TODAY?, WISHES, TEDDY BEARS & LEPRECHAUNS, A STONE IN MY SHOE, and DRUNK AS A SKUNK!
Some solo drumming:
DRUMMIN' WITH THE MAN!
A full kit drummer for many years, Frank's drum solo CD is divided into two suites of rhythm focus: Native Summer Suite and African Suite.
AFRICAN SUITE: Sunset Over Kilimanjaro, Jungle Drumming, Rainin' Down Africa, Thunder Trying, Lightning the Way, and Djembe Dancer.
NATIVE SUMMER SUITE: Arrival, Doors Opening, Entering Summer, Summer, Speeding, Home.
Other than Djembe Dancer, each track is performed a full drum kit.
Each track is a live performance. There is no dubbing.
Writing has always been Frank's other grand passion. A sample of some new work can be seen in the book section of this site. A professional writer for many years, Frank's books published to date are:
THE BEAVER - NATURE'S MASTER BUILDER (Non-fiction/Hounslow/1989[Now The Dundurn Group, Toronto.),
SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER (Non-fiction/Vesta/1983),
CAPTAIN DREAMER (Poetry/Vesta/1982),
THE OLD MAN AND THE HIDDEN FOREST (Children's/Vesta/1981)
BEING (Original Sayings/Blue Heron/1981),
HER LIGHT WAS LIKE UNTO A STONE (Poetry/Blue Heron/1981),
BASIC LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR (Education/Vesta/1980),
SMALL THINGS (Original Sayings/Blue Heron/1979)
Some more history:
During his writing career, Frank has published numerous columns, articles, poems, and short stories. In addition to bringing a variety of book projects to conclusion in the recent past, Frank writes an occasional column CELEBRATING THE WRITTEN WORD !
To balance the interior component inherent in all good writing, Frank regularly performs short shows of his original songs, poems, and comedy for both adults and children.
In recognition of his writing talent, McMaster University honored Frank by selecting him to their Alumni Gallery in 1984. In 1987, John Robert Colombo chose three pieces from Small Things and one piece from Being for inclusion in his Colombo's New Canadian Quotations, Hurtig, 1987.
There have been many highlights in Frank's musical and literary careers. On numerous occasions as a drummer, singer, songwriter, composer or playing guitar or keyboard, he has performed for adults, children, or both. Over the years, Frank has appeared on CBC Radio, CKVR-TV's Moira Hunt Show and Jayne Pritchard's Good Company. Frank has published a vast quantity of prose, poetry, and fiction in India, Canada, and the United States. Besides having books published, some publications his work has appeared in are: Canadian Author & Bookman, Books in Canada, Exile - The Literary Quarterly, Writers' Lifeline, and The Christian Monitor (India). Besides Frank's CDs, musical highlights include performing at the Canadian National Exhibition, The Eden Mill's Writers' Festival (children's section) , the Tottenham Talent Show, CHCH-TV, numerous daycare centers, the Haliburton Folk Society (Annual Weekend), the Dufferin County Museum, Museum on the Boyne, & with great joy as the "Fun" part singing a few songs for a "Fun & Fit Class" in the Dance Studio at the University of Toronto . In the workshop/lecture arena, Frank has conducted sessions for elementary schools, high schools, universities, libraries, literary groups, private clubs, and special events. He has facilitated professional development workshops for teachers on the subject: Creativity and Education. Frank had great fun speaking on the short story at a national conference of the Canadian Authors' Association. And he loved reading from his work, performing a few songs, and giving his workshop Writing from the Inside Out over a two day literary arts celebration put on by Spirit of the Hills -- The North Cumberland Arts Association, Campbellford, Ontario.
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