[1] In Chicago, where the album was recorded, Nelson met and learned from artists including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Otis Spann.

[2] Her band Mother Earth played the Fillmore Auditorium, sharing bills with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix.

[3] It was during this period that Nelson wrote and first recorded her signature song "Down So Low" (released on the first Mother Earth album Living with the Animals, tracked in Nashville and the vocal recorded in Memphis with Terry Manning), which was later covered by Linda Ronstadt,[1] Etta James,[4] Diamanda Galás, Dee Dee Warwick, Ellen McIlwaine, Maria Muldaur, and Cyndi Lauper.

[3][4] During this comeback period, she performed on American music television programs such as Sunday Night and Austin City Limits.

[13] Other projects include a collaboration with blues-rock veterans Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Corky Siegel and Sam Lay.

[3] Stranger included her covers of Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone," Jim Reeves's "Four Walls"; the Everly Brothers' "I Wonder If I Care as Much" and a song based on a poem of her own composition, "Salt of the Earth".

Their live November 4, 2011, performance from the Throckmorton Theatre was released as a CD + DVD recording by Delta Groove Productions in 2012.