Tracy Nelson

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Tracy Nelson (December 27, 1945) is an American singer.

Youth in Wisconsin

Nelson was born and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. There she first learned about R&B music from WLAC radio in Nashville, a clear-channel AM station whose powerful signal permeated the central South and Midwest.

In her teens, Nelson sang folk music in coffeehouses and with a group called The Fuller's Wood Singers, and R&B at fraternity parties in Madison. She was lead singer in a band called The Fabulous Imitations.

Early recording career

In 1964, Nelson recorded an album released on Prestige Records. It featured blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite among her backup band. In Chicago, where the album was recorded, Nelson met and learned from artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Otis Spann.

Nelson moved to San Francisco, where she became part of the 1960s music scene there. Her band Mother Earth played the legendary Fillmore Auditorium, sharing bills with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. It was during this period that Nelson wrote and recorded (with Mother Earth on the album Living with the Animals) her signature song "Down So Low," later covered by Linda Ronstadt, Etta James, and Diamanda Galás.

Later career

Before the 1960s were out, Nelson had relocated to Nashville, where she and Mother Earth recorded the well-received albums Make A Joyful Noise and the solo effort Tracy Nelson Country. The latter features Nelson's cover of the country classic "Blue, Blue Day." On one tour in Baltimore early 70s, Tracey did a duet with Jackson Browne. Nelson made a total of six albums with Mother Earth for the Mercury, Reprise, and Columbia labels. She has continued to record as a solo artist, for Atlantic and other labels. In 1974, her duet with Willie Nelson (no relation), "After the Fire is Gone" was nominated for a Grammy Award.

After a lengthy hiatus from recording in the 1980s, Tracy Nelson returned to the public eye in the 1990s, releasing a number of critically well received albums on the independent Rounder Records label. Her 1998 collaboration with label-mates Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas "Sing It" garnered a second Grammy nomination. During this comeback period she performed on American music television programs such as Sunday Night and Austin City Limits.

Since the early 2000s, Nelson has recorded for various independent record labels. A consummate live performer, she released her first in concert album "Live From Cell Block D" in 2004. Her most recent projects include a collaboration with blues-rock veterans Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Corky Siegel and Sam Lay. Billed as the Chicago Blues Reunion, the group toured major cities in 2005 and 2006.

In 2007, Tracy released "You'll Never Be a Stranger at My Door", her first pure country effort since her 1969 landmark album, "Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson Country". "Stranger" included her covers of Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone", Jim Reeves' "Four Walls"; the Everly Brothers' "I Wonder If I Care as Much" and a song based on a poem of her own composition, "Salt of the Earth", a tribute to the "Strong mind, simple creed" of her Tennessee country neighbors.

External links

• Amazon
• Tracy Nelson homepage