Biography
A.Frank Willis,
the "One-Man Band from
A.Frank, as he is affectionately known, launched his one-man show in 1975 and became an overnight sensation. Fans marvelled as they watched him simultaneously play bass pedals with his left foot, chord organ with his right foot, and the harmonica (clamped in a holder)... all while his hands alternated between the guitar and mandolin strapped in front of him. He frequently pulled the accordion, banjo, and kazoo into the performance… just for good measure! During performances, he integrated a variety of musical styles including traditional, country, pop, rock-and-roll, and everything in between. This diversity, combined with such rare abilities, garnered jam-packed audiences of young and old alike. The title of his 1976 debut album, Any Kind Of Music, says it all.
That record yielded two major hits... Grandpa's
Motorboat and
It's Over
Now. But nobody could have
predicted what would happen in 1979. Upon releasing his second album, Getting
Myself Together, A.Frank Willis
scored a smash hit with Take Me As I Am...
which, to this day, remains the longest running #1
song on
Between 1981 and the present, the "Master
Showman" released several albums, spawning many #1 hits. He also
recorded three live party albums, which captured the charm and character of his
One-Man-Band Show, and demonstrated his
distinctive interpretation of
While A.Frank Willis is a “much sought
after” performer and a “must see” entertainer, as a lyricist, he is also a well-respected
craftsman. His songs tell warm, colourful, and funny
stories that paint indelible pictures in our hearts and minds. Many of
these songs, such as his big hit Savage Cop in Savage Cove (from his Soirée album,
1999), are based on true stories.
Known to be "one
of
Though he has decades of entertaining to his
acclaim, don't expect A.Frank Willis
to retire any time soon. Relentlessly, he continues to write and perform
his own kind of music for his thousands of loyal fans right across
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