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Donavon Frankenreiter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donavon Frankenreiter, born December 10, 1972, in Downey, California, is an American roots musician and surfer. He is a long-time friend of Jack Johnson and his debut self-titled album was released in 2004 on Johnson's Brushfire Records through Universal Music and made the Australian ARIA Top-40 charts in April 2004.
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He commenced surfing as a teenager at San Clemente, California, and was signed to a sponsorship deal with Billabong allowing him to travel the world surfing. During his travels, he rented a room in North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii, from Jack Johnson's parents and the surfer-musicians developed a strong friendship.
In 1990 Frankenreiter started playing in Peanut Butter and Jam at the age of 18. In 1996 he began to seriously pursue a musical career when he formed the band Sunchild. In Sunchild, Frankenreiter was the lead guitar player but did no singing. The band had a 70s rock sound similar in style to The Black Crowes. They released their first CD, Barefoot & Live, on Surfdog Records in 1997. Produced by Gary Hoey, the live album featured covers of The Allman Brothers Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison, as well as several originals. California Honey followed in 2000 on their own Sunchild Records. This studio album is now out-of-print and is very hard to find. Sunchild disbanded in 2001 and Frankenreiter went on to pursue a solo career. Sunchild is rarely mentioned in interviews or press-releases which leads many people to believe that Donavon only started his professional music career more recently.
In 2002 Frankenreiter signed with Brushfire Records.
His self-titled solo album, Donavon Frankenreiter, was recorded with co-producers Jack Johnson and Mario Caldato Jr. Johnson appears on the the album, as do G. Love and Eels member Koool G. Murder. The album was released in April 2004 in Australia due to his high profile in that country from his support gigs for Jack Johnson and from Frankenreiter’s own surfing career. He toured Australia in April 2004, helping the album reach the top forty of the ARIA albums chart. Gary Jules was his support act on this tour. The album was released in the United States one month later, on 11 May 2004.
Frankenreiter’s follow-up album, Move by Yourself, was released on June 6, 2006. A song from the album, “Lovely Day,” was featured in the opening sequence of the 2006 film Snakes on a Plane, and also appears on that movie's soundtrack.
with Sunchild:
- Barefoot & Live (1997)
- California Honey (2000)
solo:
- Donavon Frankenreiter (2004) #165 US
- Move by Yourself (2006)