The new (debut) Fran album is here!  The new (debut) Fran album is here!  I listened all the way through twice today while coloring.  I’ve got to say dayum is it good.  I’m sure varying favorites will rise over time, but the song I chose today had me crying, it is so relevant to my world, but also because the musicianship is so good.  There is very little information in the CD case and nowhere can I find lyrics, but I think you can understand what she’s singing.  I haven’t been this excited about new music since I heard Mitski.  Fran has Sheryl Crow, kd lang, Blue Rodeo flavors to it.  There is a haunting quality on the lead guitar that reminds me of George Harrison .  Keep your eyes on Fran.  I have a feeling this band is going places.

Fran’s album, A Private Picture, was released on November 15, 2019, by Firetalk Records.

The next paragraph is a repeat from my 10/3/19 post, which you can find here.
From Firetalk Records
The trick is to make a confession entertaining. A Private Picture, the debut album by Chicago’s Fran, delivers a collection of extremely personal experiences that have been distilled and abstracted to the point that you can see yourself in their imagery, find analogs to your own emotional history in their scenarios –when you hear them, it’s a conversation. It’s therapy, if therapy was allowed to turn you on and make you shake what you got. At its core, Fran’s music is about sharing a truth -–telling it, confessing it, yelling it—in the service of human connection. Or, as Jacobson puts it, “I feel that I am a songwriter for the same reason I wanted to be an actor. I want to tell the truth. I want to challenge myself to get closer and closer to the core of an experience, an emotion- I want to say it, sing it, in a way that says exactly what it is. I cry when I write songs because I am constantly making discoveries, about myself, about the world, about the best way to convey and connect and get closer.”

Britt Julious at The Chicago Tribune wrote a (too) short article on Maria Jacobson, the singer-songwriter of Fran.  You can read it here.

Personnel:
Maria Jacobson —  Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Organ, Flute
Bass — Atticus Lazenby
Lead Guitar (on chosen song, #6) — Luke Otwell
Drums (on chosen song, #6) — Nick Kabat

Elsewhere on the album:
Bret Koontz — lead guitar
Ashley Guerrero — drums
Luke Otwell — Lap Steel
Emily Jane Powers — Violin

Cut #6 “(I Don’t Want You To Think) I’ve Moved On” is today’s choice.