Carol Fran

Carol Fran (born Carol Augustus Anthony; October 23, 1933 – September 1, 2021) was an American soul blues singer, pianist, and songwriter, best known for her string of single releases in the 1950s and 1960s, and her later musical association with her husband, Clarence Hollimon. She released six albums since 1992 including four as a duo with Hollimon. In 1996, Fran and Hollimon appeared at the Long Beach Blues Festival.

See There! (1994) was her next album release, before another collaboration with Hollimon saw the issue of It's About Time (2000).

She appeared in the 2015 documentary film I Am the Blues.

Fran was a recipient of the 2013 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States.

In 2020, Carol Fran released her first newly recorded album in 18 years titled All Of My Life: The Saint Agnes Sessions. This was an LP only release by Jazz Foundation of America. In the same year, her documentary film Carol Fran: Tous Les Jours C'est Pas La Même, Every Day Is Not The Same was released by Coulee Productions.

Fran died from post-COVID-19 complications at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, on September 1, 2021, aged 87.

Discography

Albums Year Title Record label 1992 Soul Sensation! with Clarence Hollimon Black Top 1994 See There! with Clarence Hollimon Black Top 1995 Women in (E)motion with Clarence Hollimon Tradition & Moderne 2000 It's About Time with Clarence Hollimon JSP 2002 Fran-tastic Sound of New Orleans 2020 All Of My Life: The Saint Agnes Sessions [LP] Jazz Foundation of America

Compilation albums Year Title Record label (and notes) 2005 The Complete Cala, Port and Roulette Recordings Stateside (with Bettye LaVette) 2005 Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast Nonesuch (one track - "Tou' Les Jours Ç'est Pas la Même")