MOTHER EARTH - ''Make A Joyful Noise'' 1969

Mother Earth
''Make A Joyful Noise''
1969
Wounded Bird Records

1 Stop the Train/Andrews, Arthur, Castille 3:23
2 What Are You Trying to Do/Neville 3:56
3 I Need Your Love So Bad/John 5:25
4 Soul of the Man/Sain 3:07
5 Blues for the Road/Andrews, Stallings 3:36
6 You Win Again/Williams 4:16
7 Come on and See/Arthur 3:12
8 Then I'll Be Moving On/St. John 3:22
9 The Fly/St. John 3:36
10 I Wanna Be Your Mama Again/Sahm 3:31
11 Wait, Wait, Wait/Neville 2:43

John Cameron Andrews/Guitar
Joe Arnold/Horn Section, Sax (Tenor), Saxophone
Bob Arthur/Bass, Vocals
Robert Arthur/Bass
Larry Butler/Piano
Sadie Cantrell/Vocals
Lonnie Castille/Drums
James "Curly" Cooke/Guitar (Rhythm)
Lady Corder/Vocals
Clay Cotton/Organ, Piano
Jack Drake/Bass (Acoustic)
Pete Drake/Guitar (Steel)
Ronnie Eades/Baritone, Horn Section
D.J. Fontana/Drums
Johnny Gimble/Fiddle, Violin
Ben Keith/Dobro, Guitar
Shorty Lavender/Fiddle, Violin
Gene "Bowlegs" Miller/Horn Section, Trumpet
Tracy Nelson/Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Gerald Richardson/Horn Section, Trombone
Hargus "Pig" Robbins/Keyboards
Irma Routen/Vocals
Powell St. John/Harmonica, Vocals
Shalimar Samuelson/Musician
Boz Scaggs/Guitar (Rhythm)
Dale Sellars/Guitar (Rhythm)
Rev. Ron Stallings/Vocals
Aaron Varnell/Horn Section, Sax (Tenor)

Review by J.P. Ollio & Thom Jurek
Make a Joyful Noise is the follow-up to 1968's Living With the Animals. This time out, Mother Earth neatly divided their joint appreciations for rural and urban American music: à la the thematic "City Side" and "Country Side." The City Side is an R&B workout, powered by a robust horn section and the vocals of Rev. Ron Stallings on burning soul cuts such as "Stop That Train," Tracy Nelson's killer performance on Naomi Neville's cooker "What Are You Trying to Do," and sultry read of Little Willie John's babymaker "Need Your Love So Bad." The Country Side is more subdued, adorned by steel guitars and Powell St. John's quavering vocals on "I'll Be Moving On" and the strange "The Fly." Nelson's version of Doug Sahm's "I Wanna Be Your Mama Again" is her blues-country gospel version of Hank Williams' honky tonk nugget "You Win Again" (with a fine fiddle solo by Johnny Gimble). Some of the guest stars on this set include Boz Scaggs, Hargus Robins, Ben Keith, D.J. Fontana, and Pete Drake. Make a Joyful Noise remains an overlooked classic from the Warner Brothers catalog that finally saw CD issue in 2004 by Wounded Bird.

Biography by Greg Prato
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).

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