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In the '30s, Jimmie Rodgers was known as ''The Singing Brakeman''; in the '50s, Canadian country star Hank Snow was dubbed ''The Singing Ranger''; in the '90s, will country fans be calling Virginia's Cleve Francis ''The Singing Doctor'' ? ''Oh, I sort of hope not,'' says a chuckling Francis, who is the first African-American country singer signed to a major label since Charley Pride in the 1960s. ''Once people hear my music, I think all the labels-'singing doctor,' 'black country artist'-pretty much disappear.'' And a lot of people will soon be hearing Francis' music: ''Love Light,'' the first single from his debut album, Tourist in Paradise (Capitol), is a budding hit. The oldest of six children born in poverty in Jennings, La., Francis says, ''My external system was negative, but my mother inspired a strong internal system in me- love, hard work, education.'' A graduate of the Medical College of Virginia, Francis, now 45, was part of a five-person cardiology practice in Alexandria and making music on the side when he decided to film his own video for ''Love Light.'' Capitol exec Jimmy Bowen saw it, signed him, and coproduced Tourist with Cleve. ''I took almost a clinical approach to making the album,'' says Francis. ''It's mostly up-tempo-no tears-in-my-beer, leave-me-and- I'll-jump-off-a-bridge songs. I want my music to be therapeutic as well as entertaining.'' Therapy never sounded so warm and inviting.
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