Search - Frances Black :: Best of

Irish singer with class and style

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 10/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Frances Black's music, like that of her more famous sister Mary, is usually classified as folk but it has elements of country and pop too, the end result being extremely enjoyable. Frances recorded five albums in the nineties, these being Frances Black and Kieran Goss, Talk to me, The sky road, The smile on your face (the first Frances Black album I ever bought) and Don't get me wrong. It is from those five albums that this is mainly compiled, though it seems that a couple of tracks were newly recorded.



Even if you've never heard of Frances before, you may recognize some songs. Love me is a Bee Gees song that provided Yvonne Elliman with a UK top ten hit in the seventies. When you say nothing at all was first recorded by country singer Keith Whitley and has since been covered by several others including Alison Krauss and Ronan Keating. Everybody loves a lover was first recorded by Doris Day back in the fifties. Nanci Griffith wrote Talk to me while I'm listening and co-wrote On Grafton Street. Julie Gold (writer of From a distance, a song first recorded by Nanci Griffith) wrote Once you said you loved me. After the ball is a traditional folk song. Frances performs all these songs brilliantly with her clear, soprano voice.



Frances has recorded several songs written by Mark Nevin, who first achieved success as part of Fairground Attraction, the eighties folk-pop group who topped the UK charts with Perfect. On this compilation, Mark's songbook is represented by Don't be a stranger and Fear is the enemy of love.



Send him a letter, All the lies that you told me and The sky road are all wonderful songs that I haven't heard elsewhere and may well be original songs.



By the time you get to the end of the sixteen officially listed tracks, you may be thinking that Frances is a sweet lady with not a care in the world, but on the bonus track, Legal Illegal (a cover of a Ewan McColl song), she cuts loose. Frances sings - unaccompanied - with real passion about the evils of capitalism. I'm sure that Ewan MacColl and his brother-in-law Pete Seeger would be really proud of Frances. While my own political beliefs are somewhat different, she clearly means every word she sings (including the swear words) and it is certainly great entertainment.



If you enjoy folk music with pop and country influences, give Frances a listen."