Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man)

Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man) is a country song by Merle Haggard and The Strangers, from their 1971 album Let Me Tell You About a Song. It would be the group's 10th #1 song on the country charts.

The song's narrator mentions how he grew up in a family of traveling musicians; the band was comprised of his father (the titular character who played the "french harp" - harmonica - as well as the guitar), his mother (who sang and drove the family pickup), and his sister (who played the "ringing tambourine"). (His role in the band is not mentioned.)

He mentions how the family overcame both economic hardships (they lived, and often slept, in the pickup, and frequently cooked meals on the ground) and physical ones (Daddy Frank was born blind, while his mother lost her hearing as a result of fever but learned to read lips). Though he didn't know how his parents met, "There had to be some special help from someone/And blessed be the one who let it be".