Tracy Nelson On Mountain Stage

Singer Tracy Nelson marks her 16th appearance on Mountain Stage with a set drawn from her new album, Victim of the Blues. The album was nearly lost when Nelson's century-old farmhouse caught fire with the completed digital master inside. Rescued by firefighters as the house burned to the ground, the album features an assortment of powerful blues standards by Ma Rainey, Jimmy Reed and Willie Dixon, just to name a few.

In the '60s, Nelson cut her teeth at the feet of legends like Muddy Waters and Charlie Musselwhite, and was a part of San Francisco's Fillmore scene alongside Jimi Hendrix and others. Nelson fronted the group Mother Earth, which added a country to rock years before such a combination was fashionable; at the time, Nelson was often compared to Janis Joplin. Now based in Nashville, she's also become known as a songwriter, seeing her tunes covered by Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and Cyndi Lauper.