Folk singer Russ Franzen tries to capture life and the history of the Great Lakes in his music.
His song “Lighthouse Christmas” does just that. Inspired by the New Presque Isle Lighthouse in Michigan, Franzen said the slow melodic song describes what winter life would be like for a lighthouse keeper and his family in the late 19th century when shipping lanes would close for the season.
“The light keeper still had his chores,” he said.“He’d still have to keep up the light even though he didn’t light the lamp at night.”
Franzen said some of the chores required of the keeper and his family would include sweeping, cleaning, stockpiling food and making sure the house was winter-proofed.
“It would be like any other house out in a remote area,” he said. “You have to make sure all the repairs are made, make sure the snow isn’t coming into the lighthouse. The lighthouse service required that their light stations be ‘ship shape’ at all times, so a keeper spending the winter at the light station would continue to make sure everything was clean and in proper working order.”
Aside from his family, Franzen said a lighthouse keeper’s life would be fairly lonely, as he and his family would be isolated from the rest of society.
“It would have been lonely,” he said. “A keeper in that particular situation, their nearest neighbor was probably a few miles away and the nearest town was 10-15 miles away. In the time period I was thinking about, it might have been a twice a month trip to town kind of place, so they would stockpile food. They would have prepared prior to the winter for the weather at the lakes.”
Franzen, who has lived in Toledo for about five years and in Michigan for 35 years before that, said the song was originally off his album “Life is Good.”
He said he is honored to be a part of the “Holiday Wishes 2” album, benefiting Make-A-Wish.
“I’ve been involved in charitable work of one sort or another for a long time and I like to use my music for that purpose,” Franzen said. “This is one way of doing that and I am so happy and honored to have been asked to contribute. There are a lot of great artists contributing to this and to be a part of that means a lot to me.”
