Frances Black

(sehr) gut; Promo-CD im Papp-Schuber

FRANCES BLACK's professional singing debut was in 1986, when she began performing with her three brothers and sister (Shay, Michael, Martin, Mary, Frances) as The Black Family, performing a mix of traditional and contemporary traditional Irish music. With The Black Family, she did two major tours of Ireland in the late 1980s, and appears on both recorded albums.

The three brothers, Shay, Michael and Martin, released an album, What A Time, on the Blix Street label in 1995. Frances appears on vocals and backing vocals on most of the tracks. The recording also includes Patty Black, their mother, doing a particularly fun rendition of Now I Have to Call Him Father

In 1988, after recording the second Black Family album, Time For Touching Home, Frances joined the group Arcady as vocalist (with former De Dannan member Johnny McDonagh, and Brendan Larrissey, Patsy Broderick, Sean Keane, Cathal Hayden, Sharon Shannon, and Paul Doyle). While Frances was with Arcady, the group toured internationally - including Europe, Iraq and the U.S. - and 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 - on which Frances recorded vocals - went to #7. The album was #6 on the Irish charts and also successful in the U.S. folk market. This growing popularity of Arcady in the U.S. meant that Frances was increasingly spending more time touring overseas, and this conficted with the demands of a young family. It was at this point that Frances decided to leave Arcady. Her last tour with the group was to the U.S. in August of 1992.

A short time after leaving Arcady in 1992, she began an association with Irish singer/songwriter Kieran Goss of Newry, County Down. They recorded one album Frances Black and Kieran Goss, and toured together.

Also in 1992, two of her songs were included on the best-selling compilation of Irish women singers, A Woman's Heart. The biggest-selling Irish album ever, this album continued to hold a place on the Irish charts two years after its original release, and was approaching sales of 350,000 in 1995. Frances toured Ireland on the highly successful Woman's Heart Tour which, along with the album, effectively introduced her to a very wide audience and moved her career into a higher gear.

k.A.