The Fran McGillivray Band are Fran McGillivray (vocals, bass and flute), Mike Burke (guitars, mandola and vocals) and Roger Nunn (drumkit, djembe, percussion and vocals). They are a much-loved part of the south London acoustic blues and folk scene.

Fran and Mike have been playing and recording together since the late 1970s, as a duo and in recent years as a trio with Roger, and as part of So Long Angel and Saints & Sinners. This is their first studio album with Roger for five years.

The music they make is smooth, gentle, easy and polished, while still having plenty of grit and guts. Although they often sing, and have recorded, old standards such as Leadbelly’s Midnight Special, the songs on this album are all their own compositions.

I Want to Hear You Sing and Too High A Price perhaps follow the blues form more closely than the other songs, though the blues is deeply ingrained in all that they do. Mike’s exquisite and intricate guitar weaves around Fran’s grounded bass and rich, earthy vocals. Roger’s percussion is light and feathery, almost subliminal, but it makes the whole thing swing!

The inclusion of flute on some songs creates an atmosphere reminiscent of Bless The Weather-era John Martyn. The flute in Driving In The Rain, for example, gives the song a rich, dusky, nocturnal quality.

Havana Blues is inspired by pre-pandemic travels, Roger’s percussion lending the song a distinct Latin American feel. This is also another song featuring the soothing tones of Fran’s flute. The songwriting is often playful, with some excellent rhyming couplets: “Too high, like a towering crane/Too high, like a turned- up gain” (Too High A Price). This is an album of great riches, well worth the wait.

Fran and Mike, sometimes with Roger, sometimes without, play extensively around London and the south-east. Go and see them!

Nygel Packett January 2022

Rain - The Fran McGillivray Band

The Fran McGillivray Band is a tight, inventive trio comprising Fran (vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, flute), long-time partner Mike Burke (guitars, mandola, vocals) and Roger Nunn (drums, percussion, vocals). They came together in 2012, but their musical roots can be traced back to the late 1970s when Fran and Mike were playing folk, roots and blues venues including an appearance at the 1977 Cambridge Folk Festival. In the ensuing years the pair continued to play music in various formats including the urban blues outfit So Long Angel, Saints and Sinners and the Spikedrivers Blues Roots Revue, but mainly as a duo until they got back together with Roger Nunn, the drummer with So Long Angel for the current trio format. Over the years they have released several albums and RAIN is the third album by the Fran McGillivray Band. You could say that they play Americana, roots-rock, blues-rock, country-soul, late-night jazz, or soul-styled r&b and you’d be right on all fronts. Even so, a rhythm-forward and rootsy sense of blues is the common thread throughout, the band striking that perfect spot between overdriven and stripped down. The trio blend it all into a warm-yet-sharp set of well-observed tunes, full of layered harmonies and apt musicianship. The ample, solid production catches the ear and demands curiosity and attention, with its intelligent arrangements full of subtleties.

Opening track, The Flood, serves as a fine introduction to both Fran’s vocals and the band’s sound. Echoes of Bobbie Gentry come floating to the surface in this swirling yet tempered southern gothic epic of the impending doom and destruction if humanity fails to get to grips with climate change. It’s the perfect opening tune, a preview of how every tune on the album will unfold spaciously, letting each song take on its own life in its own time. There’s a reggae vibe going down in the easy-going rhythm of Come Up Smiling. There’s a measured melodic clarity and seamless vocal flow, with tranquil guitar lines and haunting organ way back in the mix to create textures in serene layers. Havana Blues specifically demonstrates Fran’s uncanny ability to transport a listener to restless days wandering across the city’s hot pavement with a lazy and somewhat hazy jazzy feel.

From Cuba they move north to Canada and the shadowy Toronto Nights. The track floats with clarity and serenity and seems to indicate a lighter, tranquil direction for the trio. Then again, the percussive Jump Back is an exuberant rhythmic number that sets feet a-tapping and hips a-swaying. Sultry drums and a languid bass line contrast well with the busily strummed guitar with Fran’s voice bobbing in a roil of acoustic and electric percussive instrumentation. Dressed To Kill opens with an inviting jazzy guitar lick, segueing into a staccato strum that highlights the fluidity of Fran’s vocal creating images of a late-night, dimly-lit cellar jazz-club, enticing the listener to sway gently to the hypnotic track. The grungy, slow burning The Struggle is tempered by Fran’s coolly commanding vocals tied in with an arrangement of woozy guitar licks and dramatic percussion, mimicking the helpless sensation of battling against greed and inequality. Even though the song is inspired by confusion and difficulties the track breaks brightly into an open space that is celebratory, mirroring the overcoming of such struggles.

The songwriting of Fran and Mike is so powerful and the images so striking. The trio have created a melodious sound built around inventive and probing percussion and distinctive and varied guitar work. They have really come into their own with songs that are catchier, riffs that are sharper and vocals as strong as ever on an album that emphasises song over style and succeeds accordingly.

Alan Cackett December 2021

www.alancackett.com

“Rain” is the first new studio album in five years from the FRAN MCGILLIVRAY BAND.

This has been time spent absorbing the nuances & spices of their travels and incorporating those elements into their creative work, such as the visceral guitar sounds and instinctive rhythms of ”Havana Blues” and “Driving in the Rain”, or the neon-lit metroplex beats of “Toronto Nights”.

Fran is the bassist and lead vocalist (plus flute and keys) of the trio, and her colourful and expressive voice adds energizing structure to any blues, jazz, or roots melody. Fran plays alongside the exceptional talent of Mike Burke (guitars, mandola, vocals) and Roger Nunn (drums, percussion, vocals). Fran, Mike and Roger have spent many years polishing and texturing their luxurious sounds and perfecting their strikingly naturalistic stage performances.

There are other expressionistic touches on the new album, for instance, within the crafting of their reggae-tinctured “Come Up Smiling” and the contemplative composure of “Heaven or Hell”. There are, of course, declarative notions on the ongoing global pandemic: “I Play by the Rules”, “I Want to Hear You Sing” and “Dressed to Kill”. And the songwriters (all these songs are by McGillivray / Burke, with Nunn also credited on “The Struggle”) broach the double-barrelled threats to our civilization — climate change and corporate greed — in new songs “The Flood” and “The Struggle”.

The opening track “The Flood” is an undulating and ever-deepening listen that seems plagued with regrets and omens. Fran’s voice has an earthy feel and is rich in sensory layers. The softly radiant guitar offers the dispersion of hope in what would otherwise be a song of trembling premonition. The message here is clear: the river is coming… and it will sweep us away with a mighty roar!

Lightening the mood somewhat, “Come Up Smiling” has a cheerful tone and a straightforward, upbeat message. Fran’s voice is accomplished, perceptive, and primed, as if she comes equipped with a sharp-bladed knife but hides it out of sight, under a warm blanket. This reminds us of the output of late 1980s Edie Brickell & New Bohemians.

The jazzy-blues masterpiece “Havana Blues” — with its tropical rhythms and steamy sway — has a sultry feel, but also retains a bittersweet fragility that seems based on the loss, departure and surrender of the moment. Fran’s voice on this number is a mix of caramel-sugar rum & pineapple tang. A heady cocktail!

This is sassy without being vixenish and creamy without being licentious…

A similar hand-scraped ratchet sound is presented on the elegantly expressive “Driving in the Rain” The beguiling and breathy vocal is as meditative as the percussive precipitation is perpetual. This is sassy without being vixenish and creamy without being licentious. It imparts a “come find me” predisposition, with the fragility of “never quite knowing” whether he/she actually will! This is captivating, and the style reminds us of something you would have found on the Diamond Life album by Sade Adu.

“Heaven or Hell” has a luscious resonating motif and fragrant guitar notes. Here, the carbonated accompaniments provide translucency and dimensionality but, of course, the focus will again be on that remarkable voice of double-cream, sweet almond, and lemon zest. Superlative!

Throughout this magnificent album, Fran’s smoky, sensual and truly luminous voice reaches into the personal and emotional substance of each song. And her bluesy soulfulness is always impeccably escorted by Mike & Roger’s exquisite timbre, panache and heartbeat. This is a wonderfully honed and thoroughly honest achievement.

File alongside: Elkie Brooks & Vinegar Joe, So Long Angel

Words: @neilmach 2021 ©