Mother Earth

Mother Earth - Satisfied - 1970 - Mercury

Rare seventies blues rock album with some great tracks. A very honest album with none of the pseudo psychedelic trippy hippy influences which plagued many albums of this genre. A very good album. Please make allowances for the average sound quality. See if you can find Tracy Nelson's great album, "Deep Are the Roots."

TRACKS & COMPOSERS (Where known)

1. Satisfied - Martha Carson
2. Groovy Way
3. Get Out Of Here
4. Ruler Of My Heart
5. Andy's Song - Tracy Nelson
6. Take Me In Your Arms, Rock Me A LIttle While - Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland, Brian Holland
7. You Won't Be Passing Here No More
8. This Feeling - Scotty Miller

CREDITS

Tracy Nelson (Piano), Tracy Nelson (Keyboards), Tracy Nelson (Vocals), Tracy Nelson (Vocals (Background)), Mother Earth (Main Performer), Jimmy Day (Guitar (Steel)), Ben Keith (Dobro), Ben Keith (Musician), John Andrews (Guitar), John Andrews (Guitar (Electric)), John Andrews (Musician), Sadie Cantrell (Vocals (Background)), Sadie Cantrell (Group Member), Bob Cardwell (Guitar), Bob Cardwell (Guitar (Electric)), Bob Cardwell (Vocals (Background)), Bob Cardwell (Musician), Bob Cardwell (Group Member), Sammy Dodge (Fiddle), Sammy Dodge (Musician), Karl Himmel (Drums), Karl Himmel (Musician), Farrell Morris (Percussion), Farrell Morris (Musician), Irma Routen (Vocals (Background)), Irma Routen (Group Member), Dave Zettner (Bass), Dave Zettner (Vocals (Background)), Dave Zettner (Musician), Dave Zettner (Group Member), Travis Rivers (Producer), James Day (Pedal Steel), James Day (Guitar (Steel)), James Day (Musician), John Gimbel (Fiddle), John Gimbel (Musician), Charles Talent (Engineer), Andy McMahon (Organ), Andy McMahon (Piano), Andy McMahon (Musician), Andy McMahon (Group Member), Andrew McMahon (Organ), Andrew McMahon (Piano), Andrew McMahon (Keyboards), Andrew McMahon (Vocals (Background)), Tracy Lee Nelson (Piano), Tracy Lee Nelson (Vocals), Tracy Lee Nelson (Musician), Tracy Lee Nelson (Group Member)

REVIEWS

By the time of Satisfied, Mother Earth had become pretty much a vehicle for Tracy Nelson plus backing band. There's just one original on this set, Nelson's "Andy Song," and the album sticks to a loose but R&B-focused groove, sometimes stretching the songs out in a fashion that probably would have been more tightly edited had such an approach not been in vogue in 1970. Nelson's vocals are consistently strong and stirring, and the material is commendably diverse, though overall it's just an okay album that could use a little more oomph. The white R&B vibe is tempered by strong streaks of gospel, New Orleans music, and even a bit of jazz, particularly on the smoother parts of "Groovy Way." © Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Countrified rock from Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth -- done in a warm and sincere style that goes way beyond any of the cliches of the genre! There's something about the way the group put together the tunes that really makes us like this one -- an honesty that's not bogged down in any hippy dippy expectations, and which never tries to be anything other that what it is. And yes, that's not much of a good description of the set -- but it's also our way of identifying the uniqueness that set Mother Earth apart from a lot of their contemporaries. Titles include "Satisfied", "Groovy Way", "Andy's Song", "Ruler Of My Heart", "This Feeling", and "You Won't Be Passing Here No More". © 1996-2007, Dusty Groove America, Inc
Tracy Nelson doesn't touch everyone, but once she does, she carries you away. She can be sexual and spiritual not successively but on the same note and breath; she seems to suffer and to transcend suffering simultaneously. Vocally, Mother Earth is now Tracy Nelson, and although in theory I miss the male voices--especially Robert St. John's, whose songwriting always added something too--I'm not really complaining. Yet this record is a slight disappointment. I love it, but I know that my prejudices are strong and that only once--on her own composition, "Andy's Song"--does Tracy burst calmly into free space as she does so often on the two previous Mother Earth lps and on Tracy Nelson Country. Recommended unequivocally to her cadre and equivocally to the benighted. A- © Robert Christgau, www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Mother+Earth

BIO

The late-'60s/early-'70s blues-rock outfit Mother Earth was led by singer Tracy Nelson and issued several somewhat underappreciated releases during their time span. Nelson was originally from Madison, WI, and it was while attending the University of Wisconsin that the singer was discovered by producer Sam Charters and was eventually signed to a recording contract with the Prestige label. 1965 saw the release of Nelson's solo debut, the folk-based Deep Are the Roots, and when it didn't exactly burn up the charts, Nelson decided to relocate to San Francisco, with the hopes of forming a more conventional rock outfit. Shortly after arriving on the West Coast, Mother Earth was formed, which led to performances at the famed Fillmore West, opening for the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Burdon. After an appearance on the soundtrack to the 1968 motion picture Revolution (which also featured the Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Steve Miller Band), Mother Earth signed with Mercury Records and issued a steady stream of releases until the early '70s.

These albums included 1968's Living with the Animals 1969's Tracy Nelson Country and Make a Joyful Noise, 1970's Satisfied, 1971's Bring Me Home, 1972's Tracy Nelson/Mother Earth, and 1973's Poor Man's Paradise, before Nelson pursued a solo career. Subsequently, Nelson earned a Grammy nomination in 1974 for the track "After the Fire Is Gone" (a duet with Willie Nelson) and continued to issue solo albums until the early '80s, when she became disillusioned with the direction that popular music was going in (although she did sing backup for Neil Young for a spell in the mid-'80s, including appearing with Young at the mammoth Live Aid concert in 1985). Nelson returned to music in the '90s, beginning with 1993's In the Here and Now, continuing to issue solo recordings (and in 1998, earned another Grammy nomination for the release Sing It!, a collaboration with Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas). © Greg Prato, All Music Guide