Gia Maione Prima Foundation Studio Theatre
Tickets $24
inclusive of ticket fee
About the show
For this intimate acoustic performance, Tracy Nelson will be accompanied by Steve Conn, one of the two pianists on the recent Grammy-nominated album “Life Don’t Miss Nobody.” Conn will also bring his small accordion to accompany Tracy when she switches to a 12-string acoustic guitar.
About Tracy Nelson
Tracy Nelson, one of the most powerful voices in American music, has emerged from a lengthy recording hiatus with the album of a lifetime, a musical self-portrait spanning her entire career. Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG; release date June 9th) is a 13 track collection that stretches back to her start as a guitar-picking Wisconsin teen playing coffeehouses through an unparalleled career, now in it’s sixth decade, singing blues, country, New Orleans R&B and gospel, and performing in such storied music meccas as 1960s San Francisco and 1970s Austin in her epic, genre-busting musical journey.
But this is no nostalgia trip. The title song is a brand-new composition from the woman whose “Down So Low” has become a modern standard. She’s kept busy performing and recording with long-time musical friends in projects like Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues and with the freewheeling all-star Blues Broads – Angela Strehli, Annie Sampson and Dorothy Morrison. Even so, roots lovers have waited a long time for a new Tracy Nelson album, and no one’s more excited than Tracy.
“I haven’t made a record in over 10 years,” she says. “I’ve been wanting to do every one of these songs for a really long time. I wanted to get a little bit of everything, all the kinds of music that I love.”
Life Don’t Miss Nobody is Tracy Nelson’s own Great American Songbook, featuring iconic composers like Hank Williams, Ma Rainey, Willie Dixon, Allen Toussaint, Chuck Berry, Doc Pomus, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Founding Father of American Song, Stephen Foster. Foster’s “Hard Times” in here in two settings, both featuring Tracy on 12 string, the first time she’s recorded on guitar since her 1964 debut, Deep Are The Roots.
Tracy’s labor of love includes the album’s personnel. Produced by Roger Alan Nichols (Steven Tyler, Larkin Poe) and tracked at Nashville’s Sound Emporium in just three days, Life Don’t Miss Nobody features the state-of-the-art roots rhythm section of piano masters Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton, Brian Setzer) and Steve Conn (Bonnie Raitt, Sonny Landreth), upright and electric bassist Byron House (Robert Plant’s Band of Joy, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Nashville A-list drummer John Gardner (Dixie Chicks, Taylor Swift), Larry Chaney (Edwin McCain) and Mike Henderson (SteelDrivers, Chris Stapleton) on guitars.
About Steve Conn
Raised in Pineville, Louisiana, the son of Roy “Peanut” Conn — a renowned singer and swing jazz violinist — Steve taught himself to play piano and started writing songs in junior high, as he says, “. . . trying to figure out what I’m doing here.”
As a literature student at LSU, Steve met Michael Doucet, a young fiddle player from Lafayette, who introduced him to the music and culture of Acadiana. After college, Steve moved to Colorado, where he met Sonny Landreth, another Lafayette musician, whose lifelong friendship and artistry continue to influence him profoundly.
After a summer of playing music with Sonny in the mountains, Steve returned to Pineville, where he built a recording studio in his back yard and kept writing songs, including “Love Is The Word,” which was recorded by Miss Louisiana in 1976, and “Atchafalaya Basin Homegrown Two-Step Boogie,” a regional dancehall favorite.
In 1984, he released his first album, Heart Full of Blues, which included “The Rain,” later recorded by legendary a cappella group The Persuasions. In 1994, he released River of Madness, which contains “The One and Only Truth,” a live show favorite featured on Sonny Landreth’s 2017 Grammy-nominated Recorded Live in Lafayette. In 2003, Steve released his self-titled album, which featured “Beautiful,” a haunting ballad later recorded by Bonnie Bramlett. He released Beautiful Dream in 2011, with classics like the title cut, as well as other evocative numbers like “Easier Said Than Done,” “Let The Rain Fall Down,” and “Thinking in Tongues.” Blues Blast called his latest album, Flesh and Bone, “. . . a rare shining gem of a recording. Combine a super-talented keyboard player with the heart and soul of a poet and this is the masterpiece you get.”
Now living in rural Tennessee, it’s a question he’s still asking and answering with his music. For more than 50 years now, Steve Conn’s songs have chronicled a lifetime spent watching, listening, and singing his way through uncertainty while finding beauty along the way. He’s a soulful master at the pinnacle of his game, and his stories, wit, and talent continue to enchant us while illuminating the hassle and joy of this crazy world.
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Gia Maione Prima Foundation
