Neal Francis plays Kiley Garden in Tampa, Florida on day three of Gasparilla Music Festival on Feb. 27, 2022. Credit: Photo by Ysanne Taylor c/o Gasparilla Music Festival
Last March, Neal Francis played a two-night, hometown stand at Chicago’s famed Thalia Hall where he tipped his cap to Peter Frampton by recording his own ambitious live album, Francis Comes Alive. The 34-year-old, mind-blowing songwriter and pianist-organist was accompanied, unsurprisingly, by an 11-piece band and decked out in full psychedelic regalia. Francis—who played Tampa’s Gasparilla Music Festival in 2022—told the Chicago Sun-Times that the gigs were a “childhood dream come true.”

This fall in Tampa, Francis will do his part to help students’ dreams come true, too. He’ll do it with the help of The Becky Walker Scholarship Foundation and its annual Becky’s Bash concert at Tabellas at Delaney Creek on Friday, Oct. 27. Tampa guitar virtuoso George Pennington opens the show, which supports the foundation founded in the memory of the late Becky Walker, a beloved local educator who passed in 2019 after a bout with pancreatic cancer.

Each year, the foundation—which has raised $253,000 since inception—selects a total of four students from local Title 1 high schools Spoto and Leto, and awards them three, $10,000 scholarships to be delivered over a four-year period. The Becky Walker Scholarship Foundation’s goal is to eventually raise enough money to expand the program to every school in Tampa Bay that classifies as Title 1, meaning its population includes what the department of education calls “high percentages of children from low-income families.”

The foundation hopes to see more than 1,000 people at the show.

Tickets to see Neal Francis play Becky’s Bash on Friday, Oct. 27 at Tabella’s at Delaney Creek are on sale now for $100.

See Josh Bradley’s weekly new concert roundup below.

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Lance Lopez Band Thursday, Sept. 7. 7 p.m. $20 & up. Cage Brewing, St. Petersburg

Cult Fashion w/MrENC/Highway Advisory Radio/Revel In The View/Spider Lily/Central Florida Project/Razor and the Boogie Men/more Saturday, Sept. 9. 12 p.m. $12. Union Hall, Lakeland

Fever Head w/The George Saturday, Sept. 9. 7 p.m. No cover. Shuffle, Tampa

Tampa Bay Indian Music Festival: Shri Ritesh Rajnish Mishra w/Shankh Lahiri/Anirban Chakraborty/Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh/S.G. Pramath Kiran/K.U. Jayachandra Rao Saturday, Sept. 9. 4 p.m. $30 & up. Community Hall at Hindu Temple of Florida, Tampa

USF Faculty Jazz Ensemble Thursday, Sept. 14. 8 p.m. $5 & up. New Tampa Performing Arts Center, Tampa

Jeremy Carter Group Saturday, Sept. 16. 8 p.m. $25 & up. Side Door at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg

The Steel Crows w/Quail Hollow/TBA Saturday, Sept. 16. 8 p.m. $10. Music Hall at New World Brewery, Tampa

Blues Beatles Sunday, Sept. 17. 6 p.m. $30 & up. Hough Hall at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg

Baby Arms w/Jensu/Animal Hospital/Superbitch/Mold! Friday, Sept. 22. 7 p.m. $12. Bananas Records, St. Petersburg

Matt Schofield Friday, Sept. 22. 8 p.m. $20 & up. Side Door at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg

Eric Nam w/Alexander Stewart Saturday, Sept. 23. 6 p.m. $40 & up. The Ritz, Ybor City

Hot Tonic Orchestra Saturday, Sept. 23. 8 p.m. $25 & up. Side Door at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg

Knife Rituals (EP release) w/Nashira/The Pilot Waves/Dagger Saturday, Sept. 23. 7 p.m. $15. Crowbar, Ybor City

The T-Bone Hamilton Band (live album recording party) Saturday, Sept. 23. 7:30 p.m. $30 & up. The Music Gallery, New Port Richey

Rutterkin w/The Pauses/Virginity Sunday, Sept. 24. 5:45 p.m. $10. Microgroove, Tampa

Simon Lasky Sunday, Sept. 24. 7:30 p.m. $25 & up. Side Door at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg

ProgJect feat. Marc Bonilla w/Mike Keneally/Ryo Okumoto/Jonathan Mover/Ric Fierabracci Thursday, Sept. 28. 7 p.m. $18. Floridian Social, St. Petersburg

Bryan Gee w/Jumpin Jack Frost/T.R.A.C./more Friday, Sept. 29. 8 p.m. $15. Hooch and Hive, Tampa

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UPDATED 08/31/23 12:30 p.m. Updated because Delaney Creek is in the Palm River area, not South Tampa.

This article appears in Aug 24-30, 2023.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...