Nicolette Larson

Nicolette Larson (July 17, 1952 – December 16, 1997) was an American singer. She is best known for her work in the late 1970s with Neil Young and her 1978 hit single of Young's "Lotta Love", which hit No. 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and No. 8 on the pop singles chart. It was followed by four more adult contemporary hits, two of which were also minor pop hits.

By 1985, she shifted her focus to country music, charting six times on the US country singles chart. Her only top-40 country hit was "That's How You Know When Love's Right", a duet with Steve Wariner. She died in December 1997 of cerebral edema and liver failure.

Nicolette Larson was born in Helena, Montana. Her father's employment with the U.S. Treasury Department necessitated frequent relocation for the family. She graduated from high school in Kansas City, Missouri, where she attended the University of Missouri for three semesters and worked at waitressing and office jobs before beginning to pursue the musical career she had dreamed of since singing along to the radio as a child.

In the early 1970s, Larson eventually settled in San Francisco, California, where she worked in a record store (Discount Records, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, which also sold tickets for shows at the Fillmore West and Winterland) and for the Golden Gate Country Bluegrass Festival. Turning to singing, she began her performance career with a booking as the opening act for Eric Andersen at The Egress, a club in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1975, Larson auditioned for Hoyt Axton, who was producing Commander Cody. This led to Larson singing with Hoyt Axton and The Banana Band, who were opening for Joan Baez on the "Diamonds and Rust" tour in 1975. She earned her first recording credit on Commander Cody's 1975 album Tales from the Ozone, toured with his band and also provided background vocals on subsequent Commander Cody albums in 1977 and 1978. Other early career singing credits were for Axton and Guy Clark, both in 1976; the following year her resume included further credits with Mary Kay Place, Rodney Crowell, Billy Joe Shaver, Jesse Colin Young, Jesse Winchester, and Gary Stewart.

Larson and Guthrie Thomas both had their first professional recording session on Axton's Southbound album for A&M Records. As newcomers to the recording industry, they were listed on the back cover of the album as "Street Singers", entirely separate from the highly paid, more established artists also appearing on the album.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.