Carol Fran is an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 soul blues

Soul blues

Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music...

 singer, pianist and songwriter. Fran is best known for her string of single releases in the 1950s and 1960s, and her later musical association with her husband, Clarence Hollimon. She has released five solo albums since 1992, her final collaboration with Hollimon being on JSP Records

JSP Records

JSP Records is a British record label, founded in 1978 by John Stedman , releasing recordings by blues musicians such as Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louisiana Red and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. The label is based in London, England.JSP now predominantly releases remastered CDs...

.

Biography

Carol Martin was born in Lafayette, Louisiana

Lafayette, Louisiana

Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Commencing her jump blues

Jump blues

Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...

 singing career with Don Conway, she subsequently relocated to New Orleans. There she married a saxophone player, Bob Francois, which allowed a simple abbreviation to arrive at her stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 of Carol Fran. Establishing a musical presence around Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street is a famous and historic street that spans the length of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. When founded in 1718, the city was originally centered around the French Quarter...

, New Orleans, Fran also undertook a tour of Mexico. Her debut single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 was "Emmitt Lee", recorded in 1957 and released by Excello Records

Excello Records

Excello Records was an American blues record label, started by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee in 1953 as a subsidiary of Nashboro, a gospel label...

. Three more singles ensued, but lack of success saw Fran singing with Guitar Slim

Guitar Slim

Eddie Jones , better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues guitarist, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records, "The Things That I Used to Do"...

, and after his death in 1959, she then sang alongside Nappy Brown

Nappy Brown

Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp better known by his stage name Nappy Brown, was an American R&B singer. His hits include the 1955 Billboard chart #2, "Don't Be Angry" and "Night Time Is the Right Time"...

, Lee Dorsey

Lee Dorsey

Lee Dorsey was an African American pop/R&B singer during the 1960s. Much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint with instrumental backing provided by the Meters.-Career:...

, and Joe Tex

Joe Tex

Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...

.

Lyric Records

Lyric Records

Lyric Records was the name of two different record labels of the early 20th century.* Lyric Records - Germany* Lyric Records - U.S....

 then offered a recording contract

Recording contract

A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...

 to Fran. Her next offerings were a swamp pop

Swamp pop

Swamp rock is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns and black Creoles, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French...

 version of "The Great Pretender

The Great Pretender

"The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by The Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single on November 3, 1955. The words and music were created by Buck Ram, the Platters' manager and producer who was a successful songwriter before moving into producing and...

" (1962) and a cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of "Crying in the Chapel

Crying in the Chapel

"Crying in the Chapel" is a song written by Artie Glenn for his son Darrell to sing. Darrell recorded it while still in high school in 1953, along with Artie's band the Rhythm Riders. It became a local hit and publishers got a hold of it and it went nationwide. He released the original version as...

" (1964). Despite a subsequnet reissue of the latter on Josie Records

Josie Records

Josie Records was a subsidiary of Jubilee Records in New York and was active from 1954 through to 1971. Single records were numbered from 760 through to 1031.Their best sellers were The Cadillacs, Bobby Freeman and The Meters....

, her momentum was stalled by Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

's release of his own version. Her follow-up, "You Can't Stop Me," was enhanced by an arrangement by Sammy Lowe

Sammy Lowe

Sammy Lowe was an American trumpeter, arranger, and conductor.Lowe was active both in jazz and in R&B music, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. From...

, whilst the Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...

 penned "A World Without You", also failed to find sufficient buyers. After another effort, "Any Day Love Walks In," she returned to the concert circuit.

In 1967 she signed to Roulette Records

Roulette Records

Roulette Records is an American record label, which was founded in late 1956, by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Khals, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed as director...

 and issued a version of Brook Benton

Brook Benton

Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...

's "So Close." Success still eluded here and many recordings remained unreleased. Downhearted she concentrated on performing in clubs

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 back in Louisiana. In 1982, Fran met the session guitarist

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

 Clarence Hollimon, and they went on to marry a year later and relocated to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. After appearing together in concert, Black Top Records

Black Top Records

Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...

 released their 1992 album Soul Sensation. Elsewhere, in 1993, Fran contributed to Guitar Shorty

Guitar Shorty

Guitar Shorty is an American blues guitarist. He is well known for his explosive guitar style and wild stage antics. Billboard magazine said, “his galvanizing guitar work defines modern, top-of-the-line blues-rock. His vocals remain as forceful as ever...

's album, Topsy Turvy

Topsy Turvy (Guitar Shorty album)

Topsy Turvy is the second studio album released by blues guitarist Guitar Shorty . The album was released in 1993 on CD by the label Black Top...

. In 1996, Fran and Hollimon appeared at the Long Beach Blues Festival

Long Beach Blues Festival

The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, was established in full in 1980, and is one of the largest Blues festivals and is the second oldest on the West Coast . It is held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the...

.

See There! (1994) was her next album release, before another collaboration with Hollimon saw the issue of It's About Time (2000). However, Hollimon died the same year, and Fran moved back to Lafayette, releasing Fran-tastic in October 2001.

Albums

Year	Title	Record label
1992	Soul Sensation	Black Top Black Top Records Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
1994	See There!	Black Top
1995	Women in (E)motion	Tradition & Moderne
2000	It's About Time	JSP JSP Records JSP Records is a British record label, founded in 1978 by John Stedman , releasing recordings by blues musicians such as Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louisiana Red and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. The label is based in London, England.JSP now predominantly releases remastered CDs...
2001	Fran-tastic	Sono

Compilation albums

Year	Title	Record label (and notes)
2005	The Complete Cala, Port and Roulette Recordings	Stateside Stateside Records Stateside Records is a British record label which initially released licenced American recordings and is now a reissue label....  (with Bettye LaVette Bettye LaVette Bettye LaVette is an American soul singer-songwriter who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, with her album, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise... )
2005	Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast is an album which presents songs recorded in September and October 2005, shortly after the failure of misdesigned levees flooded New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina With the destruction of their hometown fresh in their minds, New...	Nonesuch Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP... (one track - "Tou' Les Jours Ç'est Pas la Même")