Off the Clock — Higgins fills repertoire with Irish, Scottish songs

She calls herself a rebel looking for a cause, but she really has several.

Fran Higgins, 46, has a lot to say about love, freedom and social justice, and has many ways to say it.

At first she sang, now she writes.

Looking at her, no one would suspect that the quiet, friendly administrative associate for the associate dean of the School of Allied Health Professions (SAHP) would have so much passion bubbling beneath the surface.

“I hide it well,” she said.

Fran Higgins performs at the Reading Grounds.

Also known as the “poet laureate” for Allied Health, Higgins is a published poet and a singer/songwriter/musician with her own CD, The Stuff of Dreams, for which she wrote nine of the 11 songs. Her music is a blend of influences, mostly folk, in addition to some traditional Irish songs. She’s drawn to the rebel songs because they, like her, are passionate.

“I sing Irish and Scottish rebel songs because they speak out against oppression. I despise social injustice. That’s one of the reasons I became a trainer in the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards at UNMC,” Higgins said.

So she sings, from her composition, “Heart of Fire”:

Would I have stood for freedom and fallen like so many in that time?
Would true courage a heart of fire have been mine?

“My husband calls them the ‘blood on the potato songs,” she said.

Husband is Greg Higgins, a corporal for UNMC Security. He inspired her to strike up a band several years ago. He learned to play the bagpipes in 1997 and she learned the highland snare drum to accompany him. They found more people to join and the band swelled to 13, featuring Greg on the mandolin and button accordion, her daughter, Hilary, on the flute and penny whistle and Higgins on the bodhran (Irish hand drum), while others played the fiddle, bass, guitar and, sometimes, piano.

See Higgins perform Fran Higgins occasionally breaks out her Celebrity Ovation acoustic guitar and performs. Most recently, she played for the Nebraska StoryArts Liar’s Contest at the Bookworm in Countryside Village. On April, 25, she will trade the spotlight with a reader at the Blue Flamingo, 1716 S. 10th St., from 6 to 9 p.m. The theme of the evening is Creative Women.

Greg, who taught himself to play the accordion and mandolin, encouraged her to pick up the guitar again, an instrument she taught herself to play in the 7th grade while strumming along to Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and America. She has been playing the piano since she was 5 years old, growing up in Nevada.

“Our band only played good rebel songs at first – the ones people didn’t know, but the Omaha pubs wanted more popular tunes, so we built up a repertoire,” Higgins said.

The band was initially called “The Bags,” but, as people dropped out, it became O’Higgin, the traditional Irish form of their family name.

Finally, in 2001 she went solo, playing at McFosters, Borders Bookstore, the Reading Grounds and a winery. “Everyone else got burned out playing, but I like the limelight,” she said.

She sings in Gaelic as well – self taught, of course. “The language is difficult. To learn, I’d listen to recordings and write it phonetically, but there’s no one to practice with. There are also too many vowels, which make it hard to read, and it sounds nothing like it looks. Sometimes there are four letters in a word that aren’t even pronounced, so I wonder why they’re there,” she said.

Her lyrics are inspired from life experiences and the traditional Irish bawdiness that courses through her veins. And what a life she’s led. Born in Nevada too late for the hippy revolution – “that really bothered me when I was young” – Higgins grew up in Las Vegas, where she attended the University of Nevada on a vocal scholarship, while majoring in dance.

Higgins created her own album cover for The Stuff of Dreams.

She eventually dropped out of college and entered “the university of life,” traveling, playing and developing her musical writing skills. After a short-lived first marriage, Higgins found the man of her dreams and married Greg Higgins on Sept. 10, 1985. They have three children, ages 24, 21 and 18, and as of Feb. 6, a grandson.

Her talents spill over to painting as well. Higgins created her own album cover with a combination of watercolor and collage art. A couple of her pieces appeared in the inaugural issue of the Professional Pearls Booklet for UNMC medical students.

Music, though, is her first love. One of her original songs that she recorded is dedicated to her husband. “From Day One” is a beautiful love song that would make any woman wistful about romance with her soul mate.

You walked in the room and I knew you were there.
My body could feel the weight of your stare.
When our eyes met the world faded away.
It was just you and me from then till this day.

Higgins worked at UNMC from 1996 to 1999, then returned in 2001 to work in SAHP. At one point, she volunteered to teach music and dance to developmentally challenged children at the Madonna School and SAHP gave her time on Fridays to work with these children.

“Everyone in the associate dean’s office has been very supportive of my education and outside endeavors, so even though the two worlds are quite different, I don’t feel conflicted. My job is challenging enough to keep me interested but flexible enough to mesh with the rest of my life and I really appreciate that. And the tuition remission program at UNMC is the best benefit we have,” she said.

A life-long learner, Higgins received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing in 2006 from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is pursuing an advanced writer’s certificate there and is working on a memoir.

It’s sure to be full of passion.

Walking in to Work (excerpt)

White-Tennies-With-Pantyhose
passes. We don’t talk.
She stares at her toes
and trudges just ahead
with pieces of her life
stuffed inside a red
tote bag. Strife
she carries in the hunch
and shuffle, weary before
her work’s begun.