Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM PATTERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NASHVILLE, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
It doesn't take long before the newcomer is signed to a record deal - and guess what? The record company decides that she should be ``The Next Janis Joplin.''
Talk about a hard act to follow.
A quarter-century after Joplin's death, Tracy Nelson betrays no annoyance at the continuing comparison, even bringing it up first. She'll never be as famous, but Nelson is still alive and putting out first-class blues records from her home base outside Nashville.
Fifteen years ago she was one of the first of a growing list of noncountry performers to settle here. She scored a country hit in 1974 with ``After the Fire Is Gone,'' a duet with Willie Nelson (no relation).
At 50, Tracy Nelson is at a creative peak, radiating the confidence that comes from being comfortable in her own skin. After all, how many small-town hippies from Wisconsin decide to dedicate their lives to the blues, then pull it off?
Nelson's latest, ``I Feel So Good,'' is her second effort for Rounder Records, and represents a bit of a commercial breakthrough. Decades after her band, Mother Earth, played shows with the rock royalty of the time and was a favorite of kingpin promoter Bill Graham, new fans are seeking her out.
``I played in Portland, Maine - I've never been to Maine in my life - and the place was jammed. I'll start a song from the new album and they've heard it.
``That's a real trip, 'cause I can't remember anybody ever having heard my records before!''
And, though Nelson can sing just about anything, the new fans are seeking her out for the interpretations of vintage blues numbers on the Rounder albums. ``I Feel So Good'' has material written by Sugar Pie Desanto, Willie Dixon, Bessie Smith and Big Bill Broonzy.
``You know, there's a lot of great stuff out there, the old material, that nobody's ever heard,'' Nelson said. ``They've only heard `Mojo' and `Seventh Son.'''
Born to a jeweler father and bookstore owner mother in Madison, Wis., Nelson is of Norwegian extraction but discovered the blues early on listening to WLAC radio out of Nashville. Though she often has been compared to blues great Bessie Smith, her biggest role model was Ma Rainey, a rawer talent from the 1920s and '30s.
Like Rainey, Nelson likes to inhabit rather than overwhelm a song. Rarely does she lose her considerable power, preferring to explore subtleties. She is never as histrionic as classic Joplin.
After a tenure in Chicago, where Nelson was good enough to hang with greats like Charlie Musselwhite, Muddy Waters and Otis Span - she headed to California. It was the height of flower-power and hippie psychedelia when she arrived in San Francisco.
But that's not what lured her there. San Francisco was where record companies were looking for talent because of stars like Joplin, The Grateful Dead and Steve Miller (Nelson's boyfriend at one point).
For Nelson, the '60s were ``goofy.''
``It was mostly a lot of drugs and a pretty reactionary attitude ... and real self-indulgent,'' she said. ``There was a very strong political movement during that time but you wouldn't call those folks hippies. I mean hippies literally just dropped out and were goofing off.
``I'd hear someone say, `Oh, there's this great blues band playing,' and I'd go and hear 'em and it'd be like Quicksilver Messenger Service,'' she said with a generous rolling of eyes.
When Mother Earth came to Nashville in 1969, Nelson decided to stay. She's released 13 albums since then, first for major labels like Columbia and MCA, and later for independents like Flying Fish. Most were released before the age of CDs and remain highly collectible by vinyl lovers.
She put out ``Come See About Me'' in 1980, and didn't record again for 13 years when she released ``In the Here and Now'' on Rounder.
``It was mostly just the '80s,'' Nelson said. ``The '80s was to me kind of a musical wasteland and nothing I did fit in there. My perception ... was you just might as well have saved your effort and the tunes.''
Nashville music journalist-producer Tommy Goldsmith persuaded Nelson to get back in the recording game. ``He just said to me one day, `This is stupid. It's ridiculous that you're not making records, and I've just done a couple of projects for Rounder. They're a great label, let's approach 'em.'''
Rounder agreed, provided Nelson would make a blues album.
``I thought: `Well gee, put a gun to my head!'
``It was probably the only time a record label has ever asked me to do something specific that I was glad to oblige and was easy to oblige.''
by CNB