Two-time Grammy-nominated Tracy Nelson has a biography that is rich in modern music history. As the front woman for 60’s iconic San Francisco rock band Mother Earth, Nelson shared bills with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead. It was during this period with Mother Earth when Nelson wrote and recorded what was to be her signature song, ‘Down So Low’. Esquire magazine called it “one of the five saddest songs ever written.” It has been covered by great singers through the years, including Etta James, Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur and, in 2010, Cyndi Lauper, who chose it for her own Grammy-nominated blues album. After six Mother Earth albums for Mercury Records and Reprise Records, Nelson continued to record throughout the ’70s as a solo artist on various labels.

Her early music life took hold in Chicago, where she recorded a blues album, which included blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite in her band. It was in Chicago that Nelson met and was influenced by blues legends such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Nelson’s blues roots run in the truest sense, roots that intertwine with modern music, whether it’s considered rock, blues, or country. For example, in 1974, she recorded a duet with namesake Willie Nelson; ‘After the Fire is Gone’, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Willie (who is not related to Tracy although he contends they just might be “the illegitimate children of Ozzie and Harriet”) said of Tracy’s remarkable pipes, “that tremendous voice has only gotten better over the years.” After a lengthy hiatus from recording in the 1980s, Nelson released several albums on the independent Rounder Records label in the 1990s. 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. She released her first in-concert album "Live From Cell Block D" in 2004. Other projects included 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 album, "Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson Country". "Stranger" included 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".

Luckily for fans of the Mid-Winter Blues Festival, Tracy Nelson is not ready to back away from performing or recording new albums. With her 2011 release ‘Victim of the Blues’ (Delta Groove), her 26th album in just over five decades, she has circled fully to blues, back to the original music from South Side Chicago that mesmerized her teenaged mind in the mid-1960s. Rolling Stone Magazine asserted, “Tracy Nelson proves that the human voice is the most expressive instrument in creation”.

She has one of the signature voices of her generation. That natural gift has always guided Tracy Nelson’s soul; indeed, allowed her to both write and seek out the deeper songs regardless of niche or genre. A fierce singer of truth, a fountain of the deepest heartache, she is an ultimate communicator.

She is one of the few female singers who has had hit records in both blues and country genres. Tracy Nelson, a voice of modern music.

www.tracynelson.com