Last month, Neal Francis took the stage in his hometown of Chicago backed by an 11-piece band for a two-night stand, the excellently titled Francis Comes Alive, recorded for a soon-to-be-released live album and concert film.
For the 35-year-old piano-playing funk-soul singer-songwriter, it was a celebratory weekend, one that came with a special endorsement from Peter Frampton himself.
“He sent us an encouraging, congratulatory text,” Francis says. “We couldn't proceed with a better blessing than that.”
Francis will come alive again at Off Broadway this week, a return to the city that he knows well. During a phone conversation, he rattles off the names of St. Louis clubs he has played and mentions late-night drives on I-55.
“I remember driving home overnight in a blizzard from Broadway Oyster Bar,” he says. “I’ve done more overnighters from St. Louis than I can remember, but I always really enjoyed coming there.”
Most of those shows were from Francis’s stint with instrumental soul-funk band The Heard, with whom Francis cut his teeth as an organist, writer and occasional vocalist. This time, he will be fronting his own band for a show that happens to land on 4/20, the high holiday for cannabis culture. It's a coincidence that had not occurred to Francis. After all, he no longer partakes.
“I’m super about people smoking weed if they enjoy it. I just don’t happen to,” Francis says. “It’s one of those things that would probably lead to me drinking, which is really not OK.”
After a lifestyle of hard sauce-hitting that led to addiction during his days with The Heard, Francis swore off drugs and alcohol. He calls the process “a long dance with sobriety” that involved plenty of starts and stops, but Francis finally quit for good about 10 years ago.
“Eventually it was really clear [that I had to quit] because really bad stuff was happening all the time, including getting fired by The Heard.”
Francis was in rehab when he found out he was no longer with the band. While he admits to a period of resentment after getting canned, he now realizes that things ultimately worked out in his favor.
“It ended up being a good thing,” he tells me. “I had no band, so I just started writing my own songs.”
Francis is now on good terms with his former Heard bandmates. In fact, bassist Mike Starr is now a member of Francis’s band, helping to craft the four-piece group’s groovy piano-based swamp-rock gumbo.
That sound — inspired by bands like The Meters, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and early Elton John — can be heard on 2019’s Changes, 2021’s In Plain Sight and last year’s seven-track EP Sentimental Garbage, records that showcase Francis’s ’70s-style blue-eyed funk and poised vocal approach.
However, Francis says he is still a work-in-progress as a singer. “I still think of myself as a very green singer,” he says. “I didn’t really start singing until I was in my late 20s. After I started writing my own material, I was like, ‘OK, this has to have vocals, and I'm going to be the one singing it,’ so this was a big leap into the unknown.”
The leap is paying off. In Plain Sight was met with critical acclaim as Francis’ shows have been selling out across the country, attracting a wide range of music lovers.
“There are a lot of different kinds of people at our shows, and that’s cool to see,” he says. “I’m just trying to make stuff that I would want to listen to, and I’m blown away that everyone is showing up and enjoying it.”
Francis is something of a throwback, not only for his rock sounds of yesteryear but also for his recording method. Everything he has put out so far has been recorded on analog tape, even though he admits there are easier ways to make records.
“It would be so much more efficient for me to just learn how to use some of these computer programs that are so wonderful,” he says with a laugh. “But the thing that I like about [analog tape] is the tactile and mechanical experience of using the equipment and not staring at a computer screen.”
Such an old-school approach is at the heart of Francis’s entire lifestyle, from his retro fashion choices, Sticky Fingers shag haircut, New Orleans-style funk and stanky ol’ touring van.
“The day we come down to St. Louis, we’re going to meet in Chicago along the viaduct where the Metro trains come into the city. It’s very glamorous,” he jokes.
Francis, Starr, guitarist Kellen Boersma and drummer Collin O’Brien will eventually park that van at Off Broadway and plug in on stage for some serious getting down on it.
“Everybody should come ready to dance,” he says. “It’s going to be really fun.”
Jamo Presents: Neal Francis with Carlile at 8 p.m. on Thurdsay, April 20, at Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue, offbroadwaystl.com). Tickets are $20.
This story has been updated.
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