Farewell to Carol Fran

Another great Louisiana artist has died - this time soul and blues singer Carol Fran, at the age of 87. Born in Lafayette, she first recorded 'Emmitt Lee' for Excello in 1957. She played alongside many New Orleans artists including Guitar Slim, Nappy Brown and Lee Dorsey. Revivals of 'The Great Pretender' and 'Crying In The Chapel' brought her some success, but the latter was overshadowed by Elvis's version. Carol took part in one of the conference sessions, alongside Lavelle White, at the Ponderosa Stomp in 2014 and said that Elvis had given her $10,000 to make up for her loss of sales. In the same session she joked about the many stars she had performed with, and the 'nights of fun' they shared. I saw Carol perform many times in New Orleans alongside her husband Clarence Hollimon, who she met at the Dewdrop Inn in New Orleans and who died in 2000, and several times after that. The photo above shows Carol at a swamp blues show at the Rice Theater in Crowley, La, in 2011.

The photo below shows Carol with Clarence at the Black Top show in New Orleans in 1993. She and Clarence recorded two albums for Black Top in the early nineties.