Tracy Nelson

Tracy Nelson is such a classic case of massive unrealized potential that one is tempted to
liken her to the Colorado River before Boulder Dam. For the better part of a decade, since
her folkie days in Madison, she's lounged around the country, creating a string of nearly
great but always flawed albums. This is her fourth album successively on different labels,
but Atlantic comes closest to harnessing that big voice, making it a manageable e... More >

Even at her peak, Nelson risked sluggishness: you wondered whether that was placidity or metabolic malfunction. Now her voice has thickened, its seriousness become leaden. It takes her a minute longer to finish "Down So Low" than it did six years ago. Literally tedious: "tiresome because of slowness, continuance, or prolixity." (Grade: C-)