Larson eventually settled in San Francisco, California, where she worked in a record store; her volunteer work as support staff for the Golden Gate Country Bluegrass Festival brought encouragement for her vocal ambitions. She began performing in Bay Area showcases, making her professional debut opening for Eric Andersen at a club in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1975, Larson auditioned for Hoyt Axton, who was producing Commander Cody. This led to Larson’s performing with Hoyt Axton and The Banana Band, who were opening for Joan Baez on the 1975 “Diamonds and Rust” tour. She gained her first recording credit on Commander Cody’s 1975 album, Tales From the Ozone, and also provided background vocals for Commander Cody albums in 1977 and 1978. Other early career singing credits were for Hoyt Axton and Guy Clark in 1976 and in 1977 for Mary Kay Place, Rodney Crowell, Billy Joe Shaver, Jesse Colin Young, Jesse Winchester, and Gary Stewart.

Larson’s work with Emmylou Harris – the album Luxury Liner (1977) prominently showcased Larson on the song “Hello Stranger” – led to her meeting Harris’s associate and friend Linda Ronstadt, who became friends with Larson. In 1977, Larson was at Ronstadt’s Malibu home when neighbor Neil Young phoned to ask Ronstadt if she could recommend a female vocal accompanist. Ronstadt suggested Larson; she was the third person that day to mention Larson to Young. Young came over to meet Larson, who recalled, “Neil ran down all the songs he had just written, about twenty of them. We sang harmonies with him and he was jazzed.”

The following week Ronstadt and Larson cut their vocals for Young’s American Stars ‘n Bars album at Young’s La Honda ranch – the two women were billed on the album as the Bullets – and, in November 1977, Young invited Larson to Nashville to sing on his Comes a Time album. This led to Larson’s being signed to Warner Brothers, an affiliate of Young’s home label Reprise.

While it was recorded in 1978, Live at the Roxy was given its first full release in 2006. It was released by Rhino.

Despite the release of her album so late in the year, Larson was acclaimed Female Vocalist of 1978 by Rolling Stone who opined no one else could sound as if she were having so much fun on an album. Nicolette reached No. 15 on Billboard’s album chart aided by the hit single “Lotta Love”, a Neil Young composition. Larson’s “Lotta Love” hit #1 on the Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary chart and went Top 10 Pop in February 1979, the same week the single off Comes a Time: “Four Strong Winds” a duet with an unbilled (on the single) Larson, debuted on the Hot 100 on its way to a No. 61 peak. (“Sail Away”, a track featuring Larson, from the Comes a Time sessions or shortly afterwards, was included on the otherwise live Neil Young album Rust Never Sleeps released in 1979.)

Warner Brothers also issued the limited edition (5,000 copies) promo-only Live at the Roxy album comprising a December 20, 1978 concert given by Larson at the Sunset Boulevard nightclub. Larson was also featured on the No Nukes album recorded in September 1979 at Madison Square Garden backed by the Doobie Brothers in her performance of “Lotta Love”; Larson can be seen in the No Nukes film but her performance was not included.

Released as the album’s lead single, “Let Me Go Love” only reached No. 35 in February 1980 – that year Larson would be heard more on the airwaves via guest appearances on “Say You’ll Be Mine” by Christopher Cross and the Dirt Band’s “Make a Little Magic”. Larson had enough residual popularity from her debut for In the Nick of Time to become a moderate success. Because she had no major hit, Larson’s 1981 and 1982 album releases, Radioland (her last album produced by Templeman) and All Dressed Up and No Place to Go, were unsuccessful, even though both releases showed Larson back in strong vocal form. Larson received some adult-contemporary radio airplay with her remake of “I Only Want to Be With You” (No. 53) perhaps the least effective track on All Dressed Up and No Place to Go; that album was produced by Andrew Gold.

Larson’s appearance in a touring production of the C&W musical Pump Boys and Dinettes garnered enough positive reaction for MCA Nashville to sign her in 1983: the Nashville music community was so enthused about Larson’s C&W cross-over that the Academy of Country Music named her the Best New Female Vocalist in 1984 before she had any MCA Nashville releases. Larson’s MCA debut …Say When was not released until 1985 (by which point country pop was no longer in style and neotraditionalists had taken over the country scene) and the C&W career it ushered in proved anti-climactic with only one of Larson’s six MCA single releases becoming a significant hit: her duet with Steve Wariner entitled “That’s How You Know When Love’s Right” – taken from the April 1986 album release Rose of My Heart – reached No. 9 C&W. Larson’s MCA albums – produced by Emory Gordy Jr. and Tony Brown – attracted little critical attention. Her final mainstream album release was Shadows of Love, a 1988 recording made for the Italian CGD label and produced by Carlo Stretti and Ernesto Taberelli. It was her only album for a non-US label. In 1990 Larson participated in the Festival di Sanremo, duetting with Grazia Di Michele on the song “Me and My Father”.

In 1988, Larson contributed to the soundtracks of the films They Call Me Renegade and Twins with the tracks “Let Me Be the One” and “I’d Die for This Dance”, respectively; the latter was performed live onscreen by Larson accompanied by Jeff Beck.

In 1990, Larson married drummer Russ Kunkel, and the two were married until her death in 1997. The couple’s daughter, Elsie May Larson-Kunkel, was born in 1990.

In 1992 Larson reunited professionally with Neil Young to sing on his Harvest Moon album; in 1993 she was featured on Young’s Unplugged. She also provided vocal accompaniment on “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Greensleeves”, two of the tracks Young contributed to Seven Gates: A Christmas Album by Ben Keith and Friends (1994).

Larson’s final album was the self-produced Sleep, Baby, Sleep, consisting of music for children, and released on Sony Wonder in 1994.

Larson died on December 16, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, as a result of complications arising from cerebral edema triggered by liver failure.

Larson was buried at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. A benefit concert was held in Larson’s honor in February 1998 with tribute concerts held on the 10th anniversary of her death in December 2007 and also the following year.

Also in 2006, Rhino Entertainment released the album A Tribute to Nicolette Larson: Lotta Love Concert. Two “Lotta Love” concerts were held on February 20 and 21, 1998, in Santa Monica, CA, to benefit the UCLA Children’s Hospital. [1]