Frances Black

Frances Black
Frances Black
	File:Francesblackeire.jpg
Background information
Genres	Celtic; Folk
Occupation(s)	Singer, Addiction Counsellor
Years active	1988 – present
Website	Official site

Frances Black (born 25 June 1960, Portobello, Dublin)^[1] is an award-winning Irish singer. A pure vocal tone and an energetic stage presence has made Black one of Ireland’s most popular singers.^[2] She came to prominence in the 1980s when she began to play with her family's band, The Black Family, performing a mix of traditional and contemporary Irish music.^[3]

Background

Black was born in Dublin in 1960 into a very musical family. Her father Kevin was a keen fiddle player and mandolinist, a plasterer by trade and a native of Rathlin Island, County Antrim. Her mother Patty (from Dublin) used to sing in local dancehalls. Black is the youngest of five children, she has three brothers Shay, Michael and Martin, and one sister, Mary Black, who is also a very well known singer.^[4]

Musical career

Pre-solo

Black's musical career began at 17, when she began singing with her siblings, in her family group, known as The Black Family. She gained confidence in her singing abilities and enhanced her performing skills through joining the band Arcady in 1988, (with former De Dannan member Johnny McDonagh, and Brendan Larrissey, Patsy Broderick, Seán Keane, Cathal Hayden, Sharon Shannon, and Paul Doyle). The group toured in Europe, Iraq and the US. They recorded their debut album, After the Ball, containing a mixture of traditional tunes and vocals/songs. The single for the album's title track, the song "After the Ball", which featured Black on lead vocals, performed very well in the Irish charts and also made an impact on the American folk market. Due to her young family, the gruelling touring schedule was too much for Black, so she decided to leave the group. Her last tour with the group was in the U.S. in August 1992.

Black teamed up with the Newry singer Kieran Goss, and the pair recorded the album Frances Black and Kieran Goss in 1992. One of the songs on the album, "Wall of Tears", was featured on the compilation album A Woman's Heart. The album went on to become the biggest-selling Irish album ever, and this, along with the subsequent tour, advanced Black’s career in the music industry. Others artists on the album included the likes of Eleanor McEvoy, Sharon Shannon, Maura O'Connell, Dolores Keane and her sister Mary Black, who had achieved international success by then.^[5]

Solo career

Black received rave reviews while on tour in Australia and New Zealand in March 1993 with 20 other Irish artists, in a Guinness celebration of Irish music. This resulted in a record deal from the Irish label Dara Records. Black released her first solo album in 1994, Talk to Me. It became an instant hit, it sold over 100,000 copies and it spent eight weeks at number one in her native Ireland. The album contained four Nanci Griffith songs (which were unrecorded by Nanci at the time of the release), one Vince Gill song and John Lennon’s "Intuition". However, it was her cover of the Christie Hennessy song, "All the Lies That You Told Me", that received the most attention and it signalled the arrival of Frances Black as a major new talent. Talk to Me was released in the UK and US also, where she toured in 1994.

In March 1995, Black’s second solo also, The Sky Road, was released in Ireland, UK and US. She was the recipient of the Best Album by a Female award, by the IRMA. Due to her rising popularity in America, she embarked on her second solo tour there in 1995. Among Black's most successful singles are re-recordings of Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore" in 1996 and in 1997, the Yvonne Elliman-popularized tune "Love Me, Please". 1997 saw the release of Black's album The Smile On Your Face. It contained songs written by numerous different Irish, English and American songwriters. The follow-up album was 1998’s Don't Get Me Wrong, which was released in the UK under Sony Records and was Black’s fourth solo effort. It once again cemented Black’s reputation as an international performer, becoming just as revered as her older sister.^[6]

2001 brought the release of a compilation, The Best of Frances Black, again on Dara-Dolphin Records. The disc included 16 tracks from Black's recordings with Arcady and The Black Family, as well as her solo recordings. Her two most recent albums How High the Moon (2003) and This Love Will Carry (2006) have also sold very well in Ireland and Black toured the US in support of the recordings.^[7] Her latest compilation, The Essential Frances Black, (2008) went platinum and contained 40 of her most popular songs.

Personal life

Black had her first child, Eoghan, when she was 19, and her second child Aoife, when she was 21. Her first marriage ended shortly afterwards, and she is now married to her second husband, Brian Allen. Her daughter Aoife Scott recorded a track on Frances' album, This Love Will Carry and is due to release her debut CD in spring 2011. Her son Eoghan Scott is an emerging singer-songwriter and producer. Frances has also suffered with alcohol addiction.^[8] However, she returned to college as a mature student in 2004 and qualified as an addiction counsellor, and did some counselling work at the Rutland Addiction Treatment Centre in Dublin.^[9] She established a charity called The Rise Foundation in 2008, which helps the families of those in addiction. It has two offices, one based in Belfast and the other in Dublin. Frances runs 8-week family programmes at her office in Dublin, and is also working on establishing a treatment centre on Rathlin Island.

Discography

Frances Black and Kieran Goss (1992)
Talk To Me (1994)
The Sky Road (1995)
The Smile On Your Face (1996)
Don't Get Me Wrong (1998)
The Best of Frances Black (2000)
How High The Moon (2003)
This Love Will Carry (2006)
The Essential Frances Black (2008)