TRACY NELSON "VICTIM OF THE BLUES"

# OF TRACKS: 11 / RELEASE DATE: 04/19/11 / CATALOG #: DGPCD143

MUSICIANS
Tracy Nelson: vocals
Mike Henderson: guitar, banjolin on "Victim of the Blues" (Track 5)
Byron House: bass
John Gardner: drums
Jimmy Pugh: piano & Hammond B3
Marcia Ball: piano on "Shoot My Baby" (Track 3)
George Bradfute: rhythm guitar on " The Love You Save" (Track 9)

SPECIAL GUEST VOCAL DUETS
Angela Strehli on "Howlin' For My Baby" (Track 6)
Marcia Ball on "Shoot My Baby" (Track 3)
John Cowan on "Without Love" (Track 11)

DESCRIPTION
"Tracy Nelson isn't so much a singer as she is a force field — a blues practitioner of tremendous vocal power and emotional range." - Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly

"…a bad white girl…" - Etta James, from her autobiography, Rage To Live

"Tracy Nelson proves that the human voice is the most expressive instrument in creation." - John Swenson, Rolling Stone

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 and has regularly destroyed audiences across decades of performing. She is one of the few female singers who has had hit records in both blues and country genres, performing with everyone from Muddy Waters to Willie Nelson to Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas, with Grammy nominations for both her country and blues efforts." With Victim of the Blues, her 26th album in just over five decades, she has circled fully, back to the original music from South Side Chicago that mesmerized her teenaged mind in the mid-1960s.

During the midst of the psychedelic explosion Nelson moved to San Francisco, relocating from Chicago where she recorded her first album "Deep Are The Roots" for Prestige Records in 1964. She formed Mother Earth, a group that was named after the fatalistic Memphis Slim song (which she sang at his 1988 funeral). Mother Earth was a major attraction at the Fillmore, where they shared stages with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Burdon. In 1968 Mother Earth recorded its first album, which included Nelson's own composition "Down So Low." It became her signature song, and has been regularly covered by great women 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 and beyond as a solo artist garnering her first Grammy nomination in 1974 for the song "After the Fire Is Gone," a hit duet with Willie Nelson.

In late July, 2010, Nelson was featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition," a little more than a month after the tragic fire that took the 100+ year old farmhouse she shared with longtime partner Mike Dysinger. She was just beginning to deal with the aftermath of losing her home and many of her personal belongings. "The firemen told us they could save one room — we had to decide — we said 'the studio.'" This album, Victim of the Blues, is the album that miraculously survived the fire. Seeing as how her first Grammy nomination was for "After the Fire Is Gone," with Willie Nelson, she would say drolly, "It seemed like the perfect thing to call these events." Nelson had titled this album before the fire, so the irony is not missed on her. Victim of the Blues is as deeply felt as anything she has recorded in her exceptional career; she is a soul survivor.

CREDITS
Executive Producers: Randy Chortkoff, Mike Dysinger, & Tracy Nelson • Produced by Mike Dysinger • Recorded and Engineered by Kurt Storey • Assistant Engineer: Gordon Hammond • Recorded at Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN / Burns Station, TN / Grandpa's Farm, Burns, TN • Mixed by Mike Dysinger • Mastered by Ryan Foster (FREQ Mastering) • Design and Artwork by Joshua Temkin (www.joshuatemkin.com) • Photography by Mike Dysinger • Back cover live photo by Bob Hakins • Ma Rainey photo courtesy of Sheldon Harris • Liner Notes by Tracy Nelson • Radio by Steve Dixon • Retail by Jeff Fleenor • Delta Groove Legal Affairs by Malcolm Wiseman • Management by Mindy Giles  • Booking Agency: Second Octave Talent (www.secondoctave.com)