TRACY NELSON
Tracy Nelson hasn’t performed in New Jersey very much in recent years, but state residents will have three opportunities to hear her earthy, powerful voice next weekend, when she will be at The Grunin Center in Toms River, Nov. 1, before brunch shows at The South Orange Performing Arts Center, Nov. 2, and The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Nov. 3. All three events are sponsored by the Jersey-based Gia Maione Prima Foundation; at them, Nelson will be backed, on piano and accordion, by Steve Conn, who previously has worked with everyone from Bonnie Raitt to the late Kris Kristofferson.
“It’s all down — or at least half down — to me,” says Nelson, in a phone call from her home in Nashville. “I’ve got nothing, really, to fall back on except Steve — who’s wonderful.”
Nelson — whose musical roots go back to the San Francisco rock scene of the 1960s, when she fronted the band Mother Earth, best known for the blues ballad “Down So Low” — made one of last year’s most notable comeback albums: Life Don’t Miss Nobody, which was her first release in more than a decade. On it, she performed a wide-ranging mix of songs written by and/or associated with Hank Williams, Ma Rainey, Willie Dixon, Allen Toussaint, Chuck Berry, Doc Pomus, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Stephen Foster. Among those making guest appearances were Willie Nelson (no relation), Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball and Charlie Musselwhite.
There are plenty of dark clouds on the album, on songs such as Foster’s “Hard Times” (performed in both band and solo arrangements) and Tharpe’s “Strange Things Happening Every Day.” Nelson attributes that to the current political climate. But she also includes some lighter material, such as Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” (featuring Thomas and Ball) and Williams’ “Honky Tonkin’ ” (a duet with Willie Nelson). You can listen to the title track as well as “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” below.
Willie Nelson and Tracy Nelson sing together, in the ’70s.
Tracy Nelson and Willie Nelson had a Top 20 Country hit in 1974, with their cover of the Loretta Lynn/Conway Twitty duet, “After the Fire Is Gone” (watch video below). “After we did ‘Honky Tonkin’,’ I said, ‘You know what, we should do this in another 40 or 50 years, because it’s been that long in between,’ ” she says. “I don’t know if I’ll be around in 40 or 50 years, but I’m pretty sure Willie will be.”
She named Life Don’t Miss Nobody after one of its songs, which she co-wrote with her partner Mike Dysinger. “Don’t ever underestimate/The total randomness of fate/Hold what you’ve got, don’t make no noise/’Cause the world has a way of taking back its toys,” she sings. But she did not select the other songs on the album because they fit that song’s fatalistic theme.
The “life don’t miss nobody” idea “carries over into my world, and other people’s worlds,” Nelson says. “But in terms of the songs that I sing … they’re mostly bad-boyfriend songs, or happy-go-lucky songs.”
She says she is thinking of releasing a follow-up to Life Don’t Miss Nobody, hopefully next year.
“I still have songs in the bag, from that record,” she says. “I’ve got 40 or 50 songs that I’m dying to do. It may come out as the same kind of weird admixture that most of my records are, or I may hone in on something.”
In other words, she may select songs that fit some kind of theme. “I haven’t really decided yet. In mid-January, I’ll start realizing I really have to get this together.”
The cover of the “Sing It!” album.
Life Don’t Miss Nobody earned her her first Grammy nomination as a solo artist, in the Traditional Blues category. She was previously nominated, in other categories, for the “After the Fire Is Gone” duet with Willie Nelson, and for Sing It!, her electrifying 1998 album with Thomas and Ball. While the Traditional Blues winner ended up being Bobby Rush, for All My Love for You, she did attend the awards ceremony, which took place in February, in Los Angeles.
“It was an acknowledgment that I really appreciated,” she said. “The Grammy experience, which I’d done twice before … I don’t like crowds. I’m in an odd business for that, but I don’t like to be in amongst a whole bunch of people. And the L.A. culture and the whole culture around the Grammys is just something I don’t experience hardly ever — nor do I want to.
“There were some great acts on the afternoon show, like Larkin Poe. I had some good meals while I was there, but L.A is not a place I’m comfortable in. I’m comfortable further away from people, and with a lot less social interaction. So all of that was a little heavy for me. But it was just great, after all this time.”
While the nomination was in the blues category, the Grammys have had an Americana Album category since 2010, as well, and Life Don’t Miss Nobody — which has elements of country, gospel and R&B in addition to blues — could have fit in there, as well. (She has described it as “a little bit of everything, all the kinds of music that I love.”) Does Nelson feel a sense of pride in helping to pave the way for the healthy Americana scene that exists today?
“I don’t know if that’s true,” she says. “I have a lot of young women check in with me on my Facebook pages, who say they were motivated to seriously start singing by me. As far as Americana goes, I have yet to have an acknowledgment as an Americana artist. To me, what I do is certainly Americana, but I think ‘Americana’ in the current parlance is something totally different, and I’m not sure how much influence I’ve had on that.
“I hear from people who say they were moved in some significant way by something that I’ve done, and I’m very proud of that. To know that I really reached deep down into a person … there’s nothing more gratifying. But as far as the overall effect on any music genre or scene … that’s not for me to gauge.”
Tracy Nelson on the cover of her 1973 album, “Poor Man’s Paradise.”
Asked about younger artists she admires, the first one she mentions is the British singer-songwriter Raye, whom she saw on “Saturday Night Live” in April.
“The first artist I’ve heard, practically since Aretha, that I found gobsmacking is Raye. I couldn’t even tell you why both my husband and I had the same response, and he’s younger and likes a little different kind of music than I do. I just have not been so stunned by an artist in a very long time. But there are plenty of artists out there that have been around that I love. I love Pink; I think she’s just amazing. And Taylor Swift. From the beginning, I have been so impressed by her. Not that she does music that particularly resonates with me. It’s just that the whole package is really substantial, and that’s one that my great-niece and I get to both relate to, on some level.
“There are people out there that are really great. And for many years, I couldn’t have said that.”
At her New Jersey shows, she says, she’ll perform a lot of the songs from Life Don’t Miss Nobody. “I’ll probably do ‘Down So Low,’ because people want that, and I’m happy to do it,” she adds. “And a few other older songs. And Steve (Conn) will be doing two or three songs himself — his own compositions.”
In addition to the New Jersey appearances, Nelson has another big show coming up: Her 80th birthday celebration, which will take place at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville, Dec. 29.
“In Nashville, I mostly do benefits, or a show with somebody else where I just show up and do a couple of things,” she says. “This is the first time I’ve done a solo show with full band in a very long time.
“I’ve tried to avoid any acknowledgment of my 80th birthday, but it doesn’t seem to be possible,” she adds, with a laugh. “So, I figure, I might as well go in swinging.”
Tracy Nelson will perform at The Gia Maione Prima Foundation Studio Theatre at The Grunin Center at Ocean County College in Toms River, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. She will also present brunch shows at The Loft at The South Orange Performing Arts Center, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m.; and The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Nov. 3 at noon. For more about her, visit tracynelsonmusic.com.
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