Lone Star State of Mind | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1987 | |||
Recorded | July 1986 | |||
Studio | Soundstage/The Back Stage Studios, Nashville, Tennessee | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 35:38 | |||
Label | MCA | |||
Producer | Tony Brown, Nanci Griffith | |||
Nanci Griffith chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Robert Christgau | B [2] |
Lone Star State of Mind is the fifth studio album released by American musician Nanci Griffith, and her first album for MCA Records. With the album, Griffith's music took a turn from her original folk music base into more commercially viable country music. For this album, she enlisted the talents of veteran country producer Tony Brown. The album garnered her first appearance on the Billboard Country charts, rising to No. 23 on the Country Albums chart, and was her highest-charting album on the chart. It was also a massive success in the United Kingdom, where it topped the country albums chart and spent over a year in the top 20. The title track, "Lone Star State of Mind," became the first of only three Griffith singles to enter the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It peaked at No. 36, while two other singles from the album, "Cold Hearts/Closed Minds" and "Trouble in the Fields", reached No. 64 and No. 57 respectively. The song "From a Distance" would go on to become a major pop hit when covered by Bette Midler in 1990.
This album was given a mark of "B" by Robert Christgau in his review. He wrote, "Band's the same, and there's not a whole hell of a lot of distance between Jim Rooney, a marketwise old folk pro, and Tony Brown" and concludes with, "Too often, though, she's still a folkie playing just folks." [2]
Thom Owens of AllMusic wrote retrospectively of the album, "Lone Star State of Mind was Nanci Griffith's commercial breakthrough, largely because it was her first step directly toward mainstream contemporary country." [1]
The song "Ford Econoline" was a fictional tale dedicated to folk singer Rosalie Sorrels. In the song, Griffith describes Sorrels escaping an unhappy Mormon marriage, driving from Salt Lake City to San Diego with her five children to start a new life as a folk singer. Sorrels and her husband were not Mormon but Sorrels certainly did drive her children around the US in a Ford Econoline passenger van as she toured and sang. [3] The "rollicking" song was not released as a single, [4] but it was performed frequently by Griffith in concert, including a standout appearance backed by the Chieftains and Roger Daltrey in Belfast in 1991, part of the finale sequence on the live album An Irish Evening . [5]
All tracks are written by Nanci Griffith, except as indicated
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Lone Star State of Mind" | Fred Koller, Patrick Alger, Gene Levine | 3:56 |
2. | "Cold Hearts/Closed Minds" | 2:40 | |
3. | "From a Distance" | Julie Gold | 4:10 |
4. | "Beacon Street" | 2:49 | |
5. | "Nickel Dreams" | Mac McAnally, Don Lowery | 2:48 |
6. | "Sing One for Sister" | Robert Earl Keen, Jr. | 3:20 |
7. | "Ford Econoline" | 2:10 | |
8. | "Trouble in the Fields" | Griffith, Rick West | 3:18 |
9. | "Love in a Memory" | 3:17 | |
10. | "Let It Shine on Me" | Paul Kennerley | 2:59 |
11. | "There's a Light Beyond These Woods (Mary Margaret)" | 4:21 | |
Total length: | 35:38 |
Track information and credits adapted from the album's liner notes. [6]
Chart (1987) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.K. Country Albums | 1 [7] |
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums | 23 [8] |
Nanci Caroline Griffith was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She appeared many times on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985. In 1994 she won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind is the fourth studio album by American country music artist George Strait, released on September 26, 1984, by MCA Records. It is certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of one million copies in the U.S. The title track, "The Cowboy Rides Away", and "The Fireman" were all released as singles from this album. "Honky Tonk Saturday Night" was previously recorded by John Anderson on his 1982 album, Wild & Blue. American music critic Robert Christgau would refer the album as Strait’s best to date in his relative review.
#7 is the sixth studio album by American country music artist George Strait—his seventh album including his Greatest Hits—released on May 14, 1986, by MCA Records. It is certified platinum by the RIAA and it produced two singles: "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her", and "It Ain't Cool to Be Crazy About You", both of which reached Number One on the country charts in 1986. "Deep Water" is a cover of a 1948 Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys song. "Cow Town" is a cover of a 1962 Webb Pierce song.
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Other Voices, Other Rooms is the tenth studio album by American singer Nanci Griffith. It was released on March 2, 1993, by Elektra Records. Her first since leaving MCA Records, it consisted entirely of cover songs, in tribute to songwriters who influenced her own songwriting. Guest artists who appear in their own compositions included Frank Christian playing guitar on "Three Flights Up", Bob Dylan playing harmonica on "Boots of Spanish Leather", and John Prine lending harmony vocals on "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness". The album was titled after the Truman Capote novel of the same name.
Once in a Very Blue Moon is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith, released in 1985. The album had more of a country sound than her previous albums. Her first two albums were backed sparsely with instrumentation, but starting with this album, the whole complement of country-styled instrumentalists can be heard. Noted country musicians performing on the album include banjo player, Béla Fleck, champion fiddle player, Mark O'Connor, and pedal steel master, Lloyd Green. The title song was covered by Dolly Parton, who included her version on her Real Love album in 1985.
The Last of the True Believers is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith, released in 1986 by Philo Records. The acclaim accorded her from her previous album, Once in a Very Blue Moon, and this album earned her a contract with a major recording company. Here, Griffith continued her turn toward a more country-oriented work than her first two albums, which were primarily folk-sounding. It also includes two songs which were later hits for Kathy Mattea, "Love at the Five and Dime" from Walk the Way the Wind Blows (1986) and "Goin' Gone", her first number one, from Untasted Honey (1987).
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Rosalie Sorrels was an American folk singer-songwriter. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals and clubs throughout the United States. She and her five children traveled across the country as she worked to support her family and establish herself as a performer. Along the way she made many lifelong friends among the folk and beat scene. Her career of social activism, storytelling, teaching, learning, songwriting, collecting folk songs, performing, and recording spanned six decades.
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