//  OVToo, minor keys, the QVC show, Nanci on CNN, a bunch of album 
//  recommendations, and the final results of the album tournament.   
//  - MF

From: Bill Page (bpage@scctel.com>                                
Subject: OVToo, I love you                                           

Okay, so I was hasty in my judgment.
Okay, so you shouldn't judge a CD without hearing it.
Okay, so when I panned OVToo (although I always used the "I haven't
heard this all the way through" caveat), I was a weasely bum.

My lovely wife, the inimitable Dawn-Marie Heckleman Page, included OVToo
in her too-generous stack of birthday presents this weekend. I brought
it to work, and played it through twice.

I like it, I like it!*

Okay, so there are some music-by-committee numbers where nanci's lost in
the crowd (I'm waiting for the video session that has all these geezers
in the room, so we can pick out the singers instead of guessing). And
okay, so there are a couple of occasions where her vocal styling, as
we've been adminished to call this, is less than optimal for my taste.

But the overall effect is really wonderful. 72 minutes of good music,
some of it very good music. And the programming of songs, the selection
of guests and what they sing, is really remarkable.

Do I like it as much as OVOR? Probably not--it's not quite as listenable
to my ears. Would I go back and change my vote in the "album
tournament?" No, not at this point. Will I make this one of the CDs I
listen to with some frequency? Yeah, I think so.

So at this point of the year, OVToo is my third favorite (folk music) CD
of the year.

This is good stuff.

Bill "walk right by" Page

*(obligatory obscure Jerry Lewis reference

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: dan.gerson@mckesson.com                                     
Subject: a couple recommendations                                    

     I just returned from my trip to Glacier Park in Montana (among other
     fine places), and I'd like to pass along my vote for a couple of new
     discs I got that are, as Nanci once said about the Indigo Girls tunes,
     "great company".

     Indeed these 2 were, along with OVT (there's nothing quite like
     crossing the Great Divide on the Going to the Sun Highway, listening
     to "Mighty Storm" as your best friend's tail swishes wildly across
     your sightline as she's barking at a mother bear and her 3 cubs!).

     The 1st is Tom Russel's "Long Way Around" compilation. Nanci describes
     it as a perfect way to spend an evening after you unplug the phone and
     shut out the rest of the world (or something like that). I was aware
     of Russell through Nanci's covers, but man was I impressed. Wonderful,
     vivid, heartbreaking short stories in song. There's a duet with Katy
     Moffatt, "Walkin on the Moon", that captures the rapture of a first
     love so perfectly it could bring a hardened convict to tears. Speaking
     of hardened convicts, Russel's "Blue Wing" distills the bottled up
     emotional spectrum of doing time better than just about anything I've
     heard. It's got to be a favorite inside the walls. Many, many others.
     I listened to this as I was tooling along the Salmon River in Idaho on
     a perfect Indian Summer day and it's an experience that'll always be
     stamped in my mind.

     The 2nd is Dave Alvin's "Blackjack David". Another master story teller
     using the folk song as a vehicle. This songwriting paired with Alvin's
     acoustic guitar skills have always snared my attention, and this disc
     is more of the same. Filled with shimmering, hammer-on filled acoustic
     guitar work. His poignant "California Snow" is a good example of his
     ability to tell a moving story in a few short verses and pack it with
     real-life emotion that's hard to find anywhere except from the artists
     that are oft-mentioned on this list.

     Check both of these out if you haven't already.


     Dan 'back at the, sigh, keyboard' G.

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: Paul Larsen (paul@davisnet.net>                             
Subject: Re: Minor key songs                                         

Is it too late to respond to this question?  I don't remember seeing a post
about this, so I will venture an offering: I believe that the song "Wheels"
on "Poet in my Window" is in a minor key.

Paul "Waiting to be mocked by the real musicians" Larsen


_________________________________________________________________
 
From: Steve Brogden (steveb@adnetsol.com>                         
Subject: Lyle Lovett CD                                              

I would like to echo the comments from Sarah W. and Ed M. about Lyle's new
CD.  All cuts are strong.  My favorite to date is the title song, Guy
Clark's "Step Inside This house." Liner notes say that it's the first song
he wrote.  What a debut!  (Lyle's coming to Thousand Oaks next month and I
was able to land some very fine seats.)  Check out Vince Bell's
contribution too: "I've Had Enough."  Good stuff.

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: susan bond (su.b@sk.sympatico.ca>                           
Subject: Re: Minor key songs                                         

I'm a new face on this list. I'm a songwriter & poet from Canada, and N.G.
has been one of my inspirations since about 1990, so naturally I have -
almost unintentionally - "studied" her songs. I find these comments on
minor keys in Nanci's songs interesting. One of the things I find really
attractive about her songs is how they remain smooth and flowing and
thoughtful in feel *without* needing to be in a minor key. I think minor
keys can be overkill on slow songs, especially melancholy ones. The unique
thing about Nanci's songs is that they are smooth, sincere, and light all
at the same time. There *are* minor chords, but she holds them back for a
while until she's invited you into the song with a warm smile and welcome.
:-)  Um, an example would be "Goin' Gone", where the first two lines in
each verse are identical, then she swoops down into the minor, and dips
back up again at the end....

F                         C
   From the first time that I saw you
F                    C
   Standing silent by the shore
Em                   Am
   I knew my search was over
F                            G
  And I would look for love no more

She does a similar thing in "Wing and the Wheel", where the second line is
supported by a minor chord, but the rest are all major. It's like a bird
turning, in the middle of each verse.

Anyway, just a few (ahem> minor comments from the great (soon to be?) white
north!

Susan

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: "M G" (tank1000@hotmail.com>                                
Subject: folk music tour dates (no actual NG content)                

Don't know if this is well known but I stumbled upon this ftp site. It
has concert dates of what seemed like hundreds of artists, including Guy
Clark, Lucy Kaplansky, Iris Dement, etc. You can choose between listings
by artists or state. I am not sure how accurate it is but almost each
event has a phone number to doublecheck...

ftp://ftp.cac.psu.edu/pub/folk_music/dirty_linen/

hope it's helpful,
Mark "I was just searchin' for some Guy Clark chords and now I'm feelin
obligated to delurk and pass on some info" Gale

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: James_Troiano@umit.maine.edu (James Troiano)                
Subject: Thanks to mark                                              

Hi folks: I would like to extend my appreciation to Mark Ferguson for
the terrific job he has done in editing the Nanci Digest and providing
us with so much useful information on our favorite artist. This entails
a lot of work and I am certainly grateful for his efforts.   A comment
on Nanci's book: I love it. I read a few pages before retiring every
night and am absolutely enthralled with her enlightening commentary on
the making of these fine albums and the relationship with other
artists. A question: I would really like to see the TV broadcast with
Nanci mentioned in the previous Nanci Digest and wonder what is the QVC
network? I hope someone who sees  the show will let us now how she was.
Thanks again to Mark- Viva Mark and Nanci! Sincerely, JIm Troiano.


//  I think the QVC network used to be known as the Home Shopping
//  channel.  - MF
_________________________________________________________________
 
From: RonHennesy@aol.com                                          
Subject: Re: Minor key songs                                         

Susan, I enjoyed reading your remarks in the continuing discussion about minor
keys in Nanci Griffith's music.  I like your simile, "It's like a bird
turning, in the middle of each verse."

I too am an aspiring composer and lyricist (although lately I've been
concentrating on the music side).

Just a minor (or maybe major!) disagreement about the harmonies you provided
for the song "Going, Gone"; I would change these lines as follows:

 B flat                              F
  From the first time that I saw you
 B flat                          F
  Standing silent by the shore
 Am                              B flat
   I knew my search was over
 Gm                                     C
  And I would look for love no more

(Nanci plays the song in F.  Actually, if she were playing it in C, I would
agree with you, except for switching your A minor with your F major.)

As you probably know, the song wasn't written by Nanci, but by Pat Alger (who
also plays guitar on the song), Bill Dale, and Fred Koller.

Pat also wrote, with Eugene Levine, "Once in a Very Blue Moon," maybe Nanci's
only country single hit!  Pat plays guitar on that song too.

I think not all Nanci's songs have a "warm smile and welcome."  "Its a Hard
Life Wherever You Go" and "Time of Inconvenience" are in major keys, but have
a bleak messages and warnings.

Harmony is a special interest of mine, as with you.  I wrote a blues musical
setting of Psalm 130, which starts "Out of the depths have I cried out to you,
O Lord."  (Doesn't that sound like the blues?!)  It is written in G in the
Dorian mode, which is to say G minor, but with only one flat, on the B.  I
also use what are called polychords: a Petrushka chord (for example, C major
and F sharp major played simultaneously) and what I call a blues polychord
(for example, G major and B flat major simultaneously), as well as chords
based on parallel 4ths played in various combinations (called quartile
harmony).

I know I've gotten too technical for a general audience, but your remarks
spurred my own comments on harmony.

My apologies for leaving out the earlier part of this dialogue, but it started
getting cumbersome.

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: Bell/Wrightson (onemansmusic@mindspring.com>                
Subject: Re: folk music tour dates (no actual NG content)            

Dirty Linen is a great site.  The information is as accurate as can be.
You have to submit tour dates over a month in advance though (Feb for
April, etc) so last minute things may not be there.  You can cross check
at MusiCal
http://concerts.calendar.com/
(also by artist or city, etc) to see if there are additional listings
for whomever/wherever you seek..

Sarah W.
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
From: Steve Makarsky (thekidd@flash.net>                          
Subject: NANCI ON CNN                                                

Morning, N-Netters...

In case you didn't see the CNN Headline News interview with Nanci on
Monday (28 Sep), here's the transcript:

MORET: Laurin, Nanci Griffith has not let recent illness keep her from
her work.

SYDNEY: That's right, Jim. The singer/songwriter has a new album out,
celebrating the work of other great musicians from our time and decades
past.

MORET: Gloria Hillard talked with Griffith about her art and her life.

                  (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA HILLARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If songs are like short
stories, then singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith has written volumes.
She's been on the road more than 20 years, singing her songs, but in the
last few years, she's been singing the praises and the songs of other
folk artists before her.

NANCI GRIFFITH, SINGER/SONGWRITER: I felt like it was my responsibility
to give back and to pass on the songs and the writers that inspired me
as a young girl in West Texas to pick up a guitar and become a writer.

HILLARD: She started playing the guitar at six. It was easier, she says,
to write her own songs than learn someone else's, so she...

GRIFFITH: Started playing professionally when I was 14, and so it's like
it's the only thing I really know how to do.

HILLARD: Her latest album is a sequel to her Grammy-winning "Other
Voices, Other Rooms," which pays tribute to the great American
songwriters, among them Stephen Foster, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger
(ph).

GRIFFITH: I consider him to be the father of folk music in the latter
part of this century. I think babies are born knowing his songs.

HILLARD: Following an upcoming European tour, Griffith says she may be
taking a break. It was not that long ago she was battling breast cancer.
She's fine now, she says, and looking back...

GRIFFITH: The world didn't come to a stop. My world didn't come to a
stop. I went on and did the treatments I needed to do, went through my
surgery. It also made me think about things in my life, and treasure a
lot of things. But I think that the fact that I was so busy and just
said, "No, no, on, I don't want to do this, I don't have time for this."

HILLARD: She had songs to sing.

GRIFFITH: Songs need to be played in other rooms by other voices, and
often. Sing 'em loud, sing 'em out, sing 'em often. Otherwise they die.

HILLARD: Gloria Hillard, CNN Entertainment News, Los Angeles

The segment lasted 4-5 minute... BTW, they also played 2 clips of her
performing on stage... Couldn't make out the first song due to
background noise where I was watching, but the second clip showed her
singing a very energetic and enthusiastic rendition of "Wall of
Death"... In both the interview and the show, she sounded and looked
great....

Steve

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: Petop@aol.com                                               
Subject: And the winner (by a landslide) is.....                     

You made your choice.

After tabulating the results, pausing 24 hours for Yom Kippur, then re-
tabulating the results, we have a clearcut winner in our diversionary Nanci
Griffith album tournament. And that winner is:

One Fair Summer Evening  54 votes (62.8%)

Other Voices, Other Rooms 32 votes (37.2%)

Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you enjoyed it.



Respectfully,

Pete Oppel

_________________________________________________________________
 
From: mthompso@peabodygroup.com (Mark Thompson)                   
Subject: Recommendations and a question (no Nanci content)           

Hi Everyone,

Been a while since I've posted here and I thought I'd momentarily de-lurk to
tell y'all about some good music and ask a question.

First of all, I'd like to tell everyone about Kristina Olsen.  I was first
exposed to KO when I bought one of her CDs because I liked her picture on the
cover.  The CD is "Love, Kristina," has some pretty good songs on it and is
produced by Nina Gerber.  I liked the CD well enough to include a couple of
tracks on a tape I made for an NNet friend.  This friend then bought KO's Live
>From Around the World CD and sent me some of the tracks on a tape (thanks
Maureen!).  Love, Kristina is a nice CD but Live... is wonderful!  Not only is
it filled with fun, sad and intelligent music, but KO tells lots of really 
great
stories between the songs as well.  If you appreciate Nanci's storytelling
talents (a la OFSE) then Live From Around the World should be in your
collection.

And it's Kristina Olsen that leads me to my question.  I was browsing around on
CDNow one day and was checking out the sound samples available from KO's first,
self-titled CD.  One of the songs is called John Henry and is, indeed, about
that legendary steel-drivin' man.  This got me to wondering if there are any
compilations featuring songs about American folklore legends?  Any takers?

Here are a couple more recommendations while I'm at it:

E-Town Live - Ordered this and a couple other CDs from Village Records and
received them just 2 days after placing my order (thanks Bill)!  This is a
*FABULOUS* CD featuring people like James Taylor, Steve Earle, Michelle Shocked
,
Joan Osborne, Richard Thompson and more.  IMO, the Steve Earle track (Ellis Uni
One) is worth the price of the CD alone.

Bad Livers - Bluegrass with an attitude!  Great live show, too, so catch them 
if you have the chance.

Take care, all.

Mark Thompson
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
From: Ed Maier (eddie@flash.net>                                  
Subject: A tip (Non Nanci)                                           

Just got done browsing through the CD collection at

http://gate.cruzio.com/~billpeet/MusicByCandlelight/

and noticed that they had copies of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and
Hell Among The Yearlings. So if you're looking for these two CDs...

Ed Maier

 
_________________________________________________________________
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