Nanci Caroline Griffith is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, raised in Austin, Texas, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Griffith appeared many times on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985. In 1990, Griffith appeared on the Channel 4 programme Town & Country with John Prine, where she performed at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, along with Buddy Mondlock, Robert Earl Keen, and Barry "Byrd" Burton.
"From a Distance" is a song written in 1985 by American singer-songwriter Julie Gold. Gold was working as a secretary at the time for HBO and writing songs in her free time. Gold's friend, Christine Lavin, introduced the song to Nanci Griffith, who first recorded it for her 1987 album, Lone Star State of Mind.
Other Voices, Other Rooms is Nanci Griffith's tenth album, released on March 2, 1993. It was her first album for Elektra Records after leaving MCA Records. It consists entirely of cover songs, in tribute to songwriters who influenced her own songwriting. Guest artists who appear in their own compositions include 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 get its name from the Truman Capote novel of the same name.
The Last of the True Believers is singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith's fourth album, and her last album for Philo Records. The acclaim accorded her from her previous Once in a Very Blue Moon and the current album would gain her a contract with a major recording company after this album. Here, Griffith continues her turn toward a more country-oriented work than her first two albums, which were primarily folk-sounding. It also includes two songs which would later be hits for Kathy Mattea: "Love at the Five and Dime" from her 1986 album Walk the Way the Wind Blows, and "Goin' Gone", Mattea's first Number One, from 1987's Untasted Honey.
Lone Star State of Mind is Nanci Griffith's fifth album, and her first album for MCA Records. 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 #23 on the Country Albums chart, and is her highest charting album. 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 #36, while two other singles from the album, "Cold Hearts/Closed Minds" and "Trouble in the Fields", reached #64 and #57 respectively. "From a Distance" failed to chart because it was released only as a promotional single in the USA. That song successfully hit the charts when Bette Midler covered it in 1990.
Little Love Affairs is Nanci Griffith's sixth album, and it had similar success to the preceding album, Lone Star State of Mind, on the Billboard charts. The album peaked at #27 on the Country Albums chart and one of its tracks entered into the Top 40 of the Hot Country Singles chart: "I Knew Love" rose to #37. Two more tracks also charted: "Never Mind" at #58, and "Anyone Can Be Somebody's Fool" at #64.
One Fair Summer Evening is Nanci Griffith's seventh album, and her first one recorded in a live setting. It was recorded on August 19 and August 20, 1988 at Anderson Fair, a Houston, Texas club long known for featuring folk artists in an intimate setting.
Storms is singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith's eighth album. In it she heads in a third musical direction, that of pop music. Griffith, whose background is primarily folk music, turned toward country music in her preceding four or five albums, and here, again, ventures into a little different style. Griffith enlisted the talents of noted rock music producer Glyn Johns for the musical style change. The album landed at No. 42 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and at No. 99 on the Pop Albums chart in 1989. The last track on the album, "Radio Fragile", is about singer-songwriter Phil Ochs.
Hearts in Mind is an album by folk-country singer Nanci Griffith, which was released in Ireland and the United Kingdom on October 11, 2004. It was later released in the USA on February 1, 2005 featuring the bonus track "Our Very Own".. As with Griffith's 2001 album Clock Without Hands, Vietnam is a recurring theme.
Winter Marquee is a live album by folk singer Nanci Griffith. It was her first studio album for Rounder Records after leaving Elektra Records. Recorded live during the Clock Without Hands tour in spring 2002, this album grew from the original wish to capture just one live song into a 14-track live CD album, Griffith's first live recording since One Fair Summer Evening (1988). On May 29, 2002, at the historic Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, a live performance was filmed, and released on DVD under the same name. During the recording of both the album and the DVD, Griffith was joined on stage by Emmylou Harris, Tom Russell and Andrew Hardin.
Clock Without Hands is Nanci Griffith's fourteenth studio album, released in July 2001. This was her last studio album that Griffith worked with Elektra Records. It was named after Carson McCullers' final novel. The album contains a particularly personal collection of songs, including "Last Song for Mother", a tribute to her late mother. Vietnam is a recurring subject in several songs, including the biographical "Pearls Eye View " for Dickey Chapelle, and "Traveling Through This Part of You" for her ex-husband, Eric Taylor, a Vietnam veteran.
Cowboys & Englishmen is the fourteenth studio album by the American country rock band Poco. The Young-penned "Feudin'" was nominated for a Grammy in 1982 for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Largely made up of cover songs the album was Poco's last for MCA and reflected the fact that it was a contractual obligation album. When ABC Records was sold to MCA the new label A&R department showed little effort in promoting the band and, as a result, the band fielded offers from other labels once their contract was up and signed with Atlantic Records for their next two albums Ghost Town and Inamorata.
The Dust Bowl Symphony is an album released by Nanci Griffith in 1999. It consists of songs Griffith had previously released on other albums, but re-recorded with an orchestral backing. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra. Darius Rucker duets with Griffith on "Love at The Five and Dime", and the album also has contributions from Sonny Curtis and Glen Hardin, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Griffith's own band, The Blue Moon Orchestra. The song "Waiting for Love", written by Griffiths, from Blue Roses from the Moons was picked out by Griffiths as giving the singer a "brief moment of being Edith Piaf".
Blue Roses from the Moons is a studio album by Nanci Griffith, released in March 1997. The album was recorded from live takes in the studio, with her band The Blue Moon Orchestra and Jerry Allison, Sonny Curtis and Joe B. Mauldin of The Crickets. Darius Rucker duets with Griffith on "Gulf Coast Highway". The song "Waiting for Love", written by Griffith, and commencing "Life is full of finer things / They're lost and found in the dark" was later re-recorded with symphony orchestra for the 1999 album The Dust Bowl Symphony.
Country Gold is a 10 track compilation CD of songs taken from the Nanci Griffith's MCA Records albums, that she worked with the company from 1986 to 1991. Lone Star State of Mind, Little Love Affairs, One Fair Summer Evening and Storms. It was released on March 11, 1997.
The Best of Nanci Griffith is a 1993 UK album release by Nanci Griffith. It is very similar to The MCA Years: A Retrospective but with several different tracks. Two of the tracks on The Best of Nanci Griffith had previously never been released on any album. The first of which "Tumble And Fall", was later released on The Complete MCA Studio Recordings. The second previously unreleased song "The Road To Aberdeen" was recorded live at The Royal Albert Hall, London in June 1993.
The MCA Years: A Retrospective was released on MCA Records in 1993, and contains songs from Nanci Griffith's five MCA albums: Lone Star State of Mind (1987), Little Love Affairs (1988), One Fair Summer Evening (1988), Storms (1989), and Late Night Grande Hotel (1991).
Late Night Grande Hotel is an album by Nanci Griffith released in September 1991, as her last studio album for MCA Records. It was her last album that Griffith worked with the record company. It was produced by Peter Van Hooke and Rod Argent, with a slightly more pop-oriented sound than previous albums. It also features vocal contributions from Phil Everly and Tanita Tikaram.
An Irish Evening: Live at the Grand Opera House, Belfast is an album by The Chieftains. The album consists of a live recording of a concert in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The band invited on stage Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the British band The Who, and American folk singer Nanci Griffith to join them for several songs.
James Hooker is an American keyboard player, singer/songwriter and composer.
