kcfoxy's Full Review: The Best of Tracy Nelson/Mother Earth Featuring "D...
Through the mists of time I can't remember if it was 1968 or 1969, but Tracy Nelson owes me a piece of homemade carrot cake*. It was a cold winter's night at the Bill Graham's Fillmore Ballroom. Ascending the winding staircase, a bad case of the munchies led me to the deli case to the left of the stage.
A glistening hunk of homemade carrot cake, gooey with cream cheese frosting, beckoned. Graham, never known for missing a sale, ordered the counter closed. Arms crossed, he simply pointed at the stage, overlit with a kaleidoscope light show of oil globules. A dark haired young woman sat at a piano, waiting for the smoke filled hall to quiet.
What emerged were gospel chords and progressions accompanying a rich contralto voice, building layer upon layer of heart break and stark pain into a wailing crescendo of angst. My arms still get goose bumps remembering Nelson's plaintive cries for a lost love, she could never replace. Written and arranged by the 20 year old Northern California native, Down So Low still stands as her finest, most realized work.
Like Linda Ronstadt, (who did a worthy cover of this classic), Nelson eschewed footware onstage. Birthed less than five miles from the San Joaquin Delta I call home, she might as well have been born in Memphis or at the demonic Crossroads immortalized by Robert Johnson. Instead, she honed her skills in the mid 1960's folk capitol of Madison, WI. In the right place at the right time, Nelson next rubbed shoulders with fellow shouter Janis Joplin during the Summer Of Love and beyond.
She lived in a small bungalow near the Berkeley campus, surrounded by an abundance of Texas ex-patriots, and the very gifted former Paul Butterfield keyboardist, Mark Nafalin. Nafalin would help shape the sound of Mother Earth from 1966 through 1970. Former friends, (Madison by way of Texas), Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs were briefly reunited in the San Francisco Bay Area for the swirling melange of psychedelic rock, country, blues, jazz and gospel.
An uptempo favorite, with the unwieldy title; Goodnight Nelda Grebe, The Telephone Company Has Cut Us Off, uses droning piano and the more urban sounding Mother Earth Horn Section, (led by Martin Fierro), to demonstrate Nelson's vocal range and control.
A former band mate of Nafalin's, Mike Bloomfield sits in on lead guitar on a reworking of Memphis Slim's composition, Mother Earth. Nafalin's incredible piano virtuoso is matched by Nelson and Bloomfield on this classic roots rock jam.
An outstanding compilation, care has been taking to offer the finest cuts from the Mother Earth years, and the tracks are well paced between gospel revival (Won't Be Long), classic three chord blues, (Need Your Love So Bad, with Nelson's Try A Little Tenderness vamp), and newer, more country blues.
Satisfied shares tempo with Butterfield's earlier Walkin' Blues, and the heart felt Ruler Of My Heart continues the gospel feel, sounding a lot like Garnett Mimes. One of my all-time favorite songs, Eric Kaz's own Temptation Took Control Of Me And I Fell is pure R&B testifying with a soulful backup choir, The Earthettes. Minor key guitar riffing gives us that pleasing Junior Walker & The AllstarsRoadrunner sample.
I've been lost before,
Searching for the Light so long;
I can't take much more.
Because the Road of Life
Seems endless to me,
And the rest you all know well:
Temptation took control of me,
And I fell.
Deft phrasing marks this as Nelson's own. When she takes over country-tinged classics like Steve Young's perfect Seven Bridges Road, the songs become enlivened with nuances the original tunesmiths couldn't imagine. Boz Scagg's I'll Be Long Gone receives a softer, more ethereal treatment, as does Kaz' Tonight, The Sky's About To Cry.
Like one of her few peers, Bonnie Raitt, Nelson surrounds herself with talented songwriters and gifted sidemen. Time spent in Tennessee, during 1969 tour, led to a permanent farm outside Nashville, a few years later. A bountiful 17 tracks cover a brief 4 year Golden Era in contemporary blues. Do you believe in reincarnation? Close your eyes and the powerful souls of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith are brought to mind. An essential recording, this gets the rare and coveted 5 star rating.
Carrot Cake redux: Listening to Tracy Nelson with Mother Earth that frosty night so long ago, I completely forgot to revisit the deli case and devour that moist fantasy dessert. Coming full circle, lo and behold, an Epinions.com member, kimmiko offers virtually an identical treat with her own carrot cake recipe, which has served to salve my earlier deprivation.
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