Grunin Center presents Tracy Nelson with Steve Conn
originally published: 10/18/2024
(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- The Grunin Center for the Arts presents Tracy Nelson on Friday, November 1, 2024 at 7:00pm. For this intimate acoustic performance, Tracy 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; released 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.
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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.
No Depression wrote that “Steve Conn may be the best singer you’ve never heard.” But for those who have paid attention to his career for the past half century, Steve has been the benchmark for honest and soulful music. His lifelong search continues — poignant, humorous, and even heartbreaking at times — and we all get to listen to the unique rhythm he hears as he bares his truth for all to witness and invites us to join him in singing his song.
Raised in Pineville, Louisiana, the son of Roy “Peanut” Conn — a renowned singer and swing jazz violinist — Steve taught himself to play piano and started writing songs in junior high, as he says, “. . . trying to figure out what I’m doing here.”
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.”
Tickets are $24 (plus fees) and are available for purchase online. Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts is located at 1 College Drive in Toms River, New Jersey on the campus of Ocean County College.
The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts, located on the campus of Ocean County College, is a performing arts center dedicated to providing art and entertainment to Ocean County and the Jersey Shore.
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Featuring premier acts from across the globe, the Grunin Center’s intimate venue allows patrons to experience once-in-a-lifetime performances from celebrated artists, hometown musicians, and unique entertainers. Music performances in all genres, theatre, film, and dance make their way to the Grunin Center stage each season.
The Grunin Center is also the home to young performers from various educational performing arts organizations, including Ocean County College students from the performing arts and fine arts programs, and the Ocean County and NJ State Teen Arts Festivals. Our Art Gallery highlights local artists by displaying several collections throughout the year. Additionally, the Garden State Philharmonic is the Orchestra-in-Residence.
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