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.
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
Steve Conn has played piano, organ, or accordion with Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Kris Kristofferson, Dion, Kenny Loggins and a multitude of others. As a session keyboardist he has played on 12 Grammy-nominated albums, including Tracy Nelson’s Life Don’t Miss Nobody in 2024 and Sonny Landreth’s 2017 live album, Recorded Live in Lafayette, on which he plays accordion, piano and organ, and is featured singing his song “The One and Only Truth.”
He was a New Folk Finalist at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival, he’s had his music played onOprah and CSI, and for two years he was the musical director for eTown on National Public Radio.
He’s a master songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who’s toured Europe with legendary bluesman Albert King, played on “The Tonight Show” with acclaimed vocalist Shelby Lynne, and joined rock ’n’ roll icon Levon Helm onstage at the famed Ryman Auditorium.
Steve’s music reflects the depth and diversity of his Louisiana roots. Part funky bluesman, part soulful popster, he draws on his love of Southern literature to craft “tunes that infuse intriguing stories and characters with a depth of melody and musicianship that makes clear why Conn is in such demand.” (Dirty Linen)
His first national release was the critically acclaimed River of Madness, a unique hybrid of
Louisiana-influenced, pop-inspired deep grooves and high ideals. He released Steve Conn in 2003, featuring the classic “I’ve Got Your Dog” and the heartbreaking “Beautiful,” later recorded by soul icon Bonnie Bramlett.
In 2011 he came out with Beautiful Dream, 12 exquisitely crafted songs full of questions and observations about loss and innocence, hope and regret, cynicism and optimism.
He continues weaving those lyrical threads on 2019’s Flesh and Bone, which is full of rootsy grooves, incisive lyrics, imaginative production and unforgettable songs.
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Gia Maione Prima Foundation
