Artist Biography

One man 6 piece showband.

A.Frank Willis, the "One-Man Band from Newfoundland", is a virtual legend on the Canadian east coast music scene. This "little feller from Dover" is arguably one of Canada's most uniquely talented and engaging performers.

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 Newfoundland radio! The album went on to sell more than 50,000 copies. It led to a nomination for Top Male Vocalist in the RPM Awards, and in 1981, earned A.Frank the Peoples Choice Award for Best Country Solo Artist, as well as Entertainer of the Year in the Newfoundland Herald Readers’ Poll.

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 Newfoundland humour.

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 Newfoundland's greatest exports”, his music has been far-reaching and has received considerable airplay and rave reviews. His rendition of the 60’s classic, House of the Rising Sun (from Soirée) was played on radio stations in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Currently, three tracks from his latest CD, Great Big Moose (in the middle of the road), are in rotation on Radio Carinzia, a station whose program syndication reaches some 6 million listeners from Italy to Germany. Selected tracks will soon be added to playbills in Sweden & France.
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 Canada. When asked recently what keeps him going, he replied: "I haven't yet done enough, seen enough, said enough, written enough, or sung enough. I'm still not satisfied. Longevity runs in my family, and I figure I got a couple more lifetimes of performing left."

Music Influences