Loey Nelson

Country of origin:

U.S.

Type of music generally:

Rock/pop, some jazz and country elements

Status:

Sole known release, Venus Kissed the Moon ( 1989)

See also:

Loey Nelson's All Music Guide entry

Comparisons:

Sarah Cracknell, Linda Lewis

Covers/own material:

Own, with occasional covers.

General comments:

See album comments, below.

Recommended first album:

Venus Kissed the Moon is her sole known recording

Recordings:

Venus Kissed the Moon (1989)

Venus Kissed the Moon

Release info:

1989—Warner—9 26089-4

Availability:

Wide on release

Ecto priority:

Not to be warned against, but not especially recommended either. (mapravat@prairienet.org)

Group members:

Loey Nelson—vocals, guitar

Guest artists:

Russ Kunkel—drums
Jon Gordon—guitar
Leland Sklar—bass
Charlie Giordano—keyboards

Produced by:

David Kershenbaum, Paul McKenna

Comments:

For better or worse, Loey Nelson seems to be destined for the music industry's substantial population of one-album wonders. She wasn't a household word when I stumbled onto this album a few years ago, and she isn't now. The album, on the whole, is unsurprising in its apparent inability to make her so, though it does contain a few interesting bits of business.
     It starts out promisingly enough, with a couple of slices of urban grit, in a way almost a sort of 'rock noir'. Knowing next to nothing of her personal history, I can't say whether she gets her apparent aptitude for such material by osmosis, through her indirect ties to the world of practical urban affairs (her brother, according to one review of the album at the time of release, is the mayor of Milwaukee). These are followed by the title song, a jazz-influenced number that owes much to Van Morrison's "Moondance". (As fate would have it, a different song with the same title appears on one of Christine Lavin's albums, leading to some perplexity on my part before I actually heard Nelson's one). There are also one or two country-influenced selections very reminiscent of Mary-Chapin Carpenter's recent work, and a seemingly folk-like number on side 2 that sounded sort of interesting. For the most part, though, she deals in an almost generic brand of soft rock/pop, pleasant but not especially memorable in the final analysis. In a way, it comes out as an unfortunate case of lost potential, with some good, solid material diluted by a larger amount of mediocre stuff; so that the overall product is undistinctive, and apparently inadequate to drive Nelson's career very far. (mapravat@prairienet.org)

Further info:

Loey Nelson's "Momma's High Heels Got Caught in the Escalator" appears on the compilation Shrimp Whistles.

Thanks to Mitch Pravatiner for work on this entry.