Laura Nyro - Mother's Spiritual (1984)
Tracklist front / back album covers
"To a Child" – 3:53
"The Right to Vote" – 3:02
"A Wilderness" – 2:56
"Melody in the Sky" – 3:45
"Late for Love" – 2:57
"A Free Thinker" – 3:15
"Man in the Moon" – 2:55
"Talk to a Green Tree" – 3:44
"Trees of the Ages" – 3:39
"The Brighter Song" – 2:30
"Roadnotes" – 3:18
"Sophia" – 4:39
"Mother's Spiritual" – 3:12
"Refrain" – 1:08
"Man in the Moon" (live) - 3:28, bonus track on Japanese import and special edition
Laura Nyro Band Members / Musicians
Laura Nyro - voice, harmonies, acoustic and electric pianos, dulcimer on "Sophia"
Terry Silverlight - drums
Lisa Sunshine (note: her real name spelling is Elysa Sunshine - improperly credited on LP) - bass
John K. Bristow - electric guitar
Todd Rundgren - synthesizer on "Man in the Moon" and "Trees of the Ages", production assistance
Nydia "Liberty" Mata - percussion, production assistance
Jan Nigro - acoustic guitar
Julie Lyonn Lieberman - violin
Roscoe Harring - engineer
Arthur Kelm, Chris Andersen - engineer, mixing
Irene Young - photography
Mother's Spiritual is the 8th studio album by New York City-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro and her ninth original album in total, including the 1977 live album Season of Lights.
The album was released at the beginning of 1984 after a year of difficult and expensive recording sessions, and came more than five years after its predecessor, 1978's well-received but poor-selling Nested. Thanks to a small buzz surrounding Nyro's return to the spotlight after her second period of semi-retirement (the first came from 1972 to 1975), Mother's Spiritual became Nyro's last US chart entry, reaching #182 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Musically, Mother's Spiritual is the most serene and easygoing of all Laura Nyro albums, and was criticised in some quarters for being too sedate and maternal in comparison to her wild, adventurous, and experimental albums such as Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry.
