Franz Nicolay

Franz Nicolay is that multi-instrumentalist and man-about-town peddling a modern vaudeville with full-throated songs and stories shamelessly strident, stentorian and more than a little sentimental. He’s been a member of cabaret-punk circus World/Inferno Friendship Society, world’s best bar band the Hold Steady, gypsy-Balkan carnies Guignol, founded the outlaw orchestra Anti-Social Music, has been an occasional touring member of agit-punks Against Me!; and recorded or performed with everyone from Leftover Crack to Bruce Springsteen.

He has been a contributor to magazines from Blender to Impose, is a regular columnist for the literary journal InDigest, and has released several collections of essays. His first story collection, “Complicated Gardening Techniques,” was published by Julius Singer Press in 2009.