The following night’s set opens with funky rocker Turn Your Truck Around’s ensemble vocals, before Wayne Talbert takes the mike for a keyboard-driven take on Mose Allison’s I’m Not Talkin’. Tracy’s vocal showpiece is Cry On, not far removed from the album version up to the instrumental break, though the Earthettes backing vocals are, predictably, missing. She’s in fine voice again on Got To Be A Good Man, with driving drums and surging keyboards pushing the song along. Nice harp in there too.
Powell takes over for Marvel Group, the harp, intro giving it an almost left-bank Parisian feel. Obviously a fairly early stage in the song’s evolution. He maintains the mike for Stranger In My Own Home Town, another song featured on the Revolution soundtrack, a fairly straight-ahead blues that deals with Powell’s alienation from his hometown in Texas, but steps back to harp duties behind Wayne Talbert’s vocals for Dues To Pay, a more or less standard slow blues, tastefully played but indistinguishable from a thousand and one other expressions of the same genre. The short set finishes once again with Help Me Jesus, which may or may not be better than the previous night’s rendition but underlines the fact that in Nelson's voice Mother Earth had an asset close to unique among the Bay Area bands.
Line-up both nights
Tracy Nelson - vocals, piano; Wayne Talbert - vocals, keyboards; Powell St. John - vocals, harmonica; Ira Main - organ; Jance Garfat - bass; Herbert Tjpas - guitar; George Rains - drums