Neal Francis
Neal Francis (born Neal Francis O’Hara; September 4, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Influenced by classic New Orleans artists such as Dr. John, the Meters, and Allen Toussaint, in addition to Sly Stone, Billy Preston, and Curtis Mayfield, he released his first album in 2019. His second album, In Plain Sight—a "revelatory blast of soul, R&B, and off-the-rails piano jams"—was released on ATO Records in 2021. Early life and education Francis was born in Livingston, New Jersey and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He began playing the piano when he was a very young child, mimicking the sounds he heard on television. He started taking piano lessons with a classical teacher when he was four, and at 12, drawn to the blues, he began studying with boogie-woogie pianist Erwin Helfer. He played in his first band, the Reverend Funk Connection, in high school, and as a teenager sat in with blues artists at Chicago clubs. He briefly attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he studied architecture. Career Mud Morganfield, The Heard, Changes After graduating from high school, Francis played live dates with prominent blues artists including singer Mud Morganfield, the oldest