LEST WE FORGET: TRACY NELSON

Tracy Nelson is a publicist's nightmare. Even now, three albums into a career revival, she is insisting on taking on the music industry on her own terms. Yes, she is enjoying being back on stage and selling a few records, but when on tour she is more worried about her vegetable garden and collection of animals back on her farm outside Nashville. And that address poses a few problems, too. For the past 25 years - ever since she recorded a country-rock album with her old group Mother Earth - she has been miscast as a country singer. In fact, she is - and always has been - a blues and r'n'b singer of extraordinary range and power. Whether performing her own material or giving new life to such classics as Big Bill Broonzy's "Feel So Good", she is the real deal, and surely due the belated recognition doled out to sometime collaborator Bonnie Raitt. Check out "Move On" and the previous two albums on US independent Rounder and then seek out old Mother Earth stuff now appearing on CD for the first time.

Roger Trapp