Neal Francis Announces New Album ‘In Plain Sight’ & Shares Single Featuring Derek Trucks

Neal Francis will release a new album entitled In Plain Sight via ATO Records on November 5. The Chicago-based singer/songwriter/keyboardist previewed his sophomore full-length LP with lead single “Can’t Stop The Rain,” which features Derek Trucks on slide guitar.

Francis recorded the follow-up to 2019’s Changes entirely on tape over the course of a year at a former church in Chicago. Neal reunited with Changes producer Sergio Rios on In Plain Sight and tapped Dave Fridmann to mix the album. Francis is backed on the nine-track LP by bandmates Kellen Boersma on guitar, bassist Mike Starr and drummer Collin O’Brien.

Francis moved into the church, a now-defunct congregation called St. Peter’s UCC, after moving back to his hometown of Chicago following a breakup with his longtime girlfriend while on tour in the fall of 2019. “I thought I’d only stay a few months but it turned into over a year, and I knew I had to do something to take advantage of this miraculous gift of a situation,” Neal said in a press release.

“My sleep schedule flipped and I’d stay up all night working on songs in this very feverish way,” Neal explained of his experiments with analog synths borrowed from friends towards the start of the sessions at the church. “I just needed so badly to get completely lost in something.”

“Can’t Stop The Rain” is detailed as “the first unabashedly hopeful moment” on the album. “I wrote that with my buddy David Shaw, who came up with the refrain and this idea that even though life’s going to throw all this shit at you, there’s still so many things to be grateful for,” Francis added. The Revivalists frontman discussed his friendship with Neal and helping to encourage Francis to record music of his own during an appearance on The JamBase Podcast last fall.

Watch Neal Francis’ “Can’t Stop The Rain” video below:

In Plain Sight Tracklist

1. Alameda Apartments
2. Problems
3. Can’t Stop The Rain
4. D’Artagnan
5. Prometheus
6. Sentimental Garbage
7. Asleep
8. BNLV
9. Say Your Prayers