Nicolette Leigh Larson
July 17, 1952 - December 16, 1997

In February 1998, two months after beloved singer/songwriter Nicolette Larson passed away at the age of 45, a tight-knit family of musicians gathered in California to express their grief and celebrate the life of the friend they called "Nicci." Led by her husband -- legendary L.A. percussionist Russ Kunkel -- the tribute included moving performances by Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, David Crosby, Dan Fogelberg, Carole King, Little Feat, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Steven Stills and Joe Walsh. Rhino Records remembers the little girl with the big voice with THE NICOLETTE LARSON TRIBUTE CONCERT.

Produced by Kunkel, Nash, and Kunkel's son, Nathaniel, THE NICOLETTE LARSON TRIBUTE CONCERT, opens with an ensemble performance of Neil Young's "Lotta Love" -- a Top Ten hit for Larson in 1979. The album closes with an ensemble performance of "You've Got A Friend" featuring King -- the song's author -- Raitt and Ronstadt, who is the godmother of Larson's daughter, Elsie May. Backed by CSN's sweet harmonies, Raitt reunited with Freebo for "Love Has No Pride" from Raitt's 1972 album Give It Up, while Emmylou Harris revisited her 1979 album, Blue Kentucky Girl, for "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues."

Other performers included on THE NICOLETTE LARSON TRIBUTE CONCERT are Dan Fogelberg, Joe Walsh, Little Feat paired with Raitt on "Cold, Cold, Cold" and Los Angeles singer/songwriter Michael Ruff, who accompanies himself on piano for "Wonderful Life." "Nicolette was always a part of this musical family," Nash says. "It is this family that now has the privilege of celebrating her wonderful life the best way we know how -- by making music.

Larson was born in Montana and attended the University of Missouri before moving to San Francisco in the early '70s. She sang back up with Linda Ronstadt -- as The Bullets -- on Neil Young's album, American Stars and Bars and later on Young's "Comes A Time." In demand for her beautiful voice, Larson worked with artists such as Hoyt Axton, Jessie Colin Young, Harris, Ronstadt, Nash, The Doobie Brothers and Commander Cody before scoring a Top Ten hit with her cover of Neil Young's, "Lotta Love." Say When, her follow-up album, helped Larson earn the Country Music Academy's "Best New Female Vocalist" award in 1984 and included her Top 10 duet with Steve Warner, "That's How You Know When Love's Right."

Two years after singing "I'd Die For This Dance" in the comedy Twins, Larson married Kunkel in 1990. Inspired by the birth of her daughter Elsie May later that year, Larson recorded an album of lullabies and children's songs in 1994 called Sleep, Baby, Sleep. She passed away in 1997 due to complications from a cerebral edema.

"A day doesn't go by where I'm not reminded of Nicci's love for children," Kunkel writes in the album's liner notes. It's fitting, he says, that proceeds from THE NICOLETTE LARSON TRIBUTE CONCERT go to the Nicolette Larson Pediatric endowment at UCLA Children's Hospital.