Francis and the wolf
Ladies & Gentlemen
With a heaving E Street Band dose of organ and a soulful, glass-raising chorus Francis And The Wolf kick off their debut release Ladies & Gentlemen with the red, white and blue rock and roller “Ol’ Lady.” That first firecracker ignites an album’s worth of roots rock that feels as American as a parade on the Fourth of July.
The sing-along, feel-good spirit is palpable throughout Ladies & Gentlemen but Francis and the Wolf have also managed to bring a songwriter approach to their rock and roll table, tackling topics of love, life, politics and the past. As they put it in a press release “Our philosophy, spirituality, and political views lace the tracks — unapologetically.”
The band is named in honor of the compassion-over-violence moral tale of Saint Francis, who, as legend has it, befriended a wolf that was terrorizing a city. With that level of storytelling and insight behind them, Francis and the Wolf offer the incredibly timely track “Lady Liberty” with its superb chorus “Lady Liberty why are you crying / Lady Liberty I can see you trying / To talk some sense into your nation / Hold your lamp high, hold your lamp high.”