Chicago-based singer/songwriter and pianist Neal Francis has made public a live performance of his new single, “Alameda Apartments”, which was also filmed at SHIRK Studios in Chicago with backing from Francis’ touring band, as “Alameda Apartments [Live]”.
The original studio version of “Alameda Apartments” arrived last month alongside an official video which was filmed on VHS in the church where Francis lived, wrote, and recorded his new album. The single precedes Francis’s upcoming second LP, In Plain Sight due from ATO Records on Friday, November 5.
Francis talks about the inception of the album:
“I started writing ‘Alameda Apartments’ maybe six years ago, before I got sober. I was going through another breakup and getting kicked out of my place, and I had a nightmare about moving into an art-deco apartment that was haunted, where the walls were all shifting around. The craziest thing is that I’d never encountered the name ‘Alameda’ at any time in my life prior to that dream. It’s bizarre that I even remembered it, especially since you don’t dream very often when you’re getting fucked up.”
After returning home from touring on the back of 2019 debut album, Changes, Neal Francis went through a breakup and found himself living in a “possibly haunted” church where he wrote a series of new songs. Working again with producer Sergio Rios, Francis and his bandmates recorded In Plain Sight entirely on tape, mostly in that same church.
Francis adds:
“I’m owning up to all my problems within my relationships and my sobriety. So much of it is about coming to the understanding that I continue to suffer because of those problems. It’s about acknowledging that and putting it out in the open in order to mitigate the suffering and try to work on it, instead of trying to hide everything.”
Francis is currently celebrating the album’s upcoming release with a North American tour, highlighted by headline dates, shows supporting Black Pumas and My Morning Jacket, and festival appearances including Atlanta, GA’s Shaky Knees (Saturday, October 23), Live Oak, FL’s Suwannee Hulaween (Friday, October 29), San Francisco, CA’s Outside Lands (Sunday, October 31), and Wilco’s sold out Sky Blue Sky, a curated concert vacation set for January 17-21, 2022 at Mexico’s Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya. A European tour will follow in early 2022.
Those dates and locations are:
OCTOBER
15 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee *
16 – Grand Rapids, MI – 20 Monroe Live *
20 – Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre
21 – Greensboro, NC – The Blind Tiger
22 – Atlanta, GA – Purgatory at The Masquerade (Shaky Knees Aftershow)
23 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees †
24 – Charleston, SC – The Charleston Pour House
27 – Wilmington, DE – Bourgie Nights
28 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
29 – Live Oak, FL – Suwannee Hulaween †
31 – San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands † (SOLD OUT)
NOVEMBER
4 – Detroit, MI – El Club
6 – Urbana, IL – Canopy Club
11 – Cincinnati, OH – Ballroom at Taft Theatre
12 – Peoria, IL – Kenny’s Westside Pub
13 – Milwaukee, WI – The Back Room at Colectivo Coffee
18 – St. Louis, MO – Old Rock House
19 – Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall
20 – Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi
8 – Austin, TX – Antone’s Nightclub
9 – Austin, TX – Antone’s Nightclub
10 – Houston, TX – The Heights Theater
11 – Tyler, TX – Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue
12 – Dallas TX – The Kessler Theater
29 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom **
31 – Denver, CO – Globe Hall
DECEMBER
3 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
4 – Columbia, MO – Rose Music Hall
5 – Oklahoma City, OK – Ponyboy
JANUARY 2022
5 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
8 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
9 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
12 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
13 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
14 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
17-21 – Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky – Puerto Aventuras, MX † (SOLD OUT)
23 – London, UK – O2 Academy2 Islington
25 – Nijmegen, NL – Merleyn
26 – Groningen, NL – Vera
27 – Amsterdam, NL – Bitterzoet
28 – Hengelo, NL – Metropool
29 – Utrecht, NL – TivoliVredenburg
30 – Rotterdam, NL – Bird
31 – Haldern, DE – Haldern Pop Bar
FEBRUARY 2022
1 – Berlin, DE – Privatclub
2 – Hamburg, DE – Häkken
4 – Paris, FR – New Morning
5 – Beauvais, FR – L’Ouvre Boite
6 – Leffinge, BE – De Zwerver
25 – Nashville, TN – Basement East
AUGUST 2022
26-28 – Tisbury, MA – Beach Road Weekend †
* w/Black Pumas
** w/My Morning Jacket
† Festival Appearance
