Nicolette Larson: The Underrated Muse Who Lit up Neil Young’s World

Never heard of Nicolette Larson? You’re not alone. She’s so massively underrated, considering all of her contemporary hits in the 1970s and the fact that she was a big muse for Neil Young.

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To honor the late, great singer Nicolette Larson’s legacy, let’s take a walk through her incredible career; both as a musician on her own two feet, and her work with folk icon Neil Young.

Nicolette Larson’s Legacy Deserves To Be Revisited

Nicolette Larson dreamed of being a singer from an early age. She would often sing along to the radio as a young girl, and her dreams would come to fruition after moving to San Francisco in the early years of the 1970s.

At first, she was associated with the folk and alternative country movements at the time. She opened for the likes of Joan Baez and recorded with Commander Cody. She would eventually record with Emmylou Harris and become friends with Linda Ronstadt. That friendship would lead to Larson meeting Ronstadt’s neighbor, Neil Young, after Ronstadt recommended her singing chops. 

“Neil ran down all the songs he had just written, about twenty of them,” Larson said. “We sang harmonies with him and he was jazzed.”

From there, she would become a muse of sorts for Young. Her vocals would appear on Young’s American Stars ‘N Bars and Comes A Time. After cementing her status in the folk-country world, she was signed to Warner Bros. Records.

Larson’s Chart-Topping Pop and Country Hits Shouldn’t Be Forgotten

Larson is best known for her hit song, “Lotta Love”. That 1978 hit was written by Neil Young and charted to no. 1 on the contemporary charts, and made it to no. 8 on the pop charts as well. Following that success, Larson would go on to produce four additional contemporary hits that would do well on the pop charts.

Larson would later decide to shift to country music in the 1980s, and it would be a smart choice. She charted six times on the Country Singles chart, though her only Top 40 hit would be a duet with Steve Wariner called “That’s How You Know When Love’s Right”.

Part of what made Larson such a wonderful singer was the fact that she always sounded like she was having fun, no matter where her vocals would fall. Few musicians have that kind of energy, even today.

Photo by Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images

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