NanciNet Digest 12-02-98
// This digest has several v-e-r-y long posts that I would normally
// not put in the digest verbatim, but two of them are reviews from
// London newspapers, so...
// Enjoy...[BP]
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Re: Why no warning?
From: "Shawn Kimbro" (skimbro@bhset.org>
Hi Ya'll,
Debbie's BRFTM question has me hankering for a Nanci fix.
When I think back now about the Blue Roses album I get sort
of a good feeling. Even though it isn't one of my
favorites, and I don't play it much any more, the excitement
of anticipating it's release was electrifying. I really
feel the album accomplished the goal Nanci set for it, that
being to showcase the talents of the Blue Moon Orchestra.
Even though I didn't believe it at the time, I think Nanci
truly intended to disband the group after the tour. I'm
glad she didn't.
My favorite cut from the CD is "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" so
I called my favorite camper-based radio station and
requested it. It just finished playing then the DJ followed
it up with "Waiting for Love." (WDVX in Knoxville plays
more Nanci than any station in the world!) That's an
incredible song and I really like Hooker's keyboards when
Nanci sings "A whiter shade of pale is my best kept secret."
But you know, I'd rather hear someone scrape their
fingernails on a chalkboard than listen to the estro-munk
backing vocals on that track. Eeeeuuuuu!
Warm Regards,
-Shawn
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Olympia concerts
From: "Thomas, Tasha" (TThomas@vilcom.com>
Hi All,
Well, it's a long way from North Carolina to Dublin, but I'm back and
couldn't be happier about the trip.
Ms. Nanci was amazing, as were the BMO and all the other guest artists who
shared the stage with Nanci in Dublin. I swear it was a rollicking good
show! I didn't think the first night could be improved upon, until I went to
the second show in Dublin, and found that the night before every performer
had been a bit tentative as compared to the way they belted out those songs
on the second night. What a treat! My only lament is that I didn't get to
hear Nanci sing "The Road to Aberdeen" a cappella, as was noted on the
program. I've never heard Nanci sing anything a cappella, and would pay good
money to hear such a lovely thing as that. Geez, am I gushing or what.
Those nights at the Olympia, I was in awe of the talent on the stage in
front of me. Nanci was as charming as ever and her voice was in fine command
- beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The audience was quite participatory, as
there was a lot of singing going on out there. I sang like it was my job, as
did my mom, who was my traveling partner on this trip. I was thrilled to see
Odetta for the first time, and Dave Van Ronk was another highlight for me.
Dolores Keene and Nanci sang "Never be the Sun", and I was nearly moved to
tears with that one. Nanci was moved to tears (unless that was a pesky lash
in her eye), when she sang "Dress of Laces" with Eric Taylor at the second
Dublin show. And I LOVED the duet with Tom Russell, on the song "Canadian
Whiskey". Nanci's godson Aaron came onstage both nights, and sang along on
"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness", the second night, which I thought was
pretty damn sweet. He stayed onstage the duration of the show both nights,
and got to sing and dance with Odetta and be cuddled by Dolores and Nanci.
Boy does this kid have good karma or what!
All this, and I got to hear everyone sing one of my favorite OV2 songs,
"Hard Times Come Again No More".
Sure do wish you all could have been there. Thanks to Nanci, the BMO and all
their guests for giving this girl a proper welcome to Dublin. It was a
blast! A night of Nanci's music sure is food for the soul!
Tasha, I wish I could relive last week, Thomas
Tasha Thomas
Publications Project Manager
tthomas@vilcom.com
University Directories
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Bill and Bonnie Hearne in CA
From: Steve Brogden (steveb@adnetsol.com>
Just to let Southern California NanciNetters know: Bill and Bonnie Hearne
will be playing in Thousand Oaks on January 16 at 8pm at the intimate
400-seat Forum Theater of the Civic Arts Plaza. Tickets cost $21 each and
are now on sale at the Box Office or through Ticketmaster. The local
Ticketmaster number is 805/583-8700. This concert is a benefit for the
Thousand Oaks Library Children's department.
There is a chance that Bonnie will not have recovered from her illness by
then but Bill will be there regardless. Either way, there will be some
dynamite musicians on stage and it should be a great show.
I'll be hosting the evening and would love to see a bunch of NanciNetters
there.
Steve Brogden
P.S. Don't know yet about gigs in other parts of California January 12-18.
I know there is an unconfirmed booking at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley
where they opened for Tish Hinojosa -- and brought the house down -- a year
or so ago. Will keep everyone posted.
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Re: Why no warning?
From: Catelaw@aol.com
Shawn-- (aka master of so many things (brilliant prose, computer genius,
sensitive soul),
Can WDVX be heard on Real Audio? Can you point me there?
I was just earlier today pointed to the archives leading up to and following
the release of BRFTM and had to give it a respin--enjoyed it all over again
(even though reading the archives had me listening for flat notes, etc.) But
that's okay, because I'll never forget the first time I heard it; I was
sending an email to a friend and wrote this:
"Brief pause while author listens to new version of Gulf Coast Highway with
Darius Rucker singing the male vocal ~~~~~~~God, I miss Texas..."
I didn't get BRFTM until on up in the year and it was so spiritually medicinal
for the really tragic circumstances that were happening to and around many
people who are very important to me that nothing will ever overcome the
initial joy and solace I found in this CD...got to see Nanci on the BRFTM
tour, also and on my birthday, no less. AND we were very close to the stage.
I've seen her several times, but we never go stand outside the stage door or
anything... I doubt if I'd be able to maintain my dignity if I ever met Ms.
Nanci in person. I met Nolan Ryan once at a book signing and was struck dumb
throughout the encounter while my then 12-year-old son had meaningful dialogue
and shook the hand that administered multiple "head-noogies" to Robin Ventura
so effectively later on... But, I digress. (It's a Texas thaaaaang...)
Just wanted to thank my friends out in the madness for the extra dimension
they've added to a really important part of my life, a part that keeps me sane
when all the misery I encounter as a matter of course threatens to
overwhelm...
Cate, "we have been blessed with dreaming" in Atlanta
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Re: You really had to be there!!!
From: "Charlie Macdonald" (charlie.macdonald@virgin.net>
J.E.G. wrote:
>In response to the taping of last night's London concert. The BBC
>recorded it for radio transmission, but there were no film crews in
>evidence. Sorry to disappoint y'all on that one.
>>John "I usually only carry glad tidings" Graveling.
Hello Folks,
Fear not, as has been mentioned before, both nights in Glasgow (and Dublin?)
were filmed for future video release - stage four of the OV2 project. Nice
review John, almost felt like I had gone for a third time!
Ian, you certainly had a happy St.Andrew's day - well done. Nanci was doing
a lot that Scottish accent stuff at the Glasgow gigs, even Carolyn Hester
had a go.
Charlie
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Kate and Nanci Nominations
From: "Charlie Macdonald" (charlie.macdonald@virgin.net>
Hi Girls and Guys,
Sorry if this has been posted before (and I'm sure that most folks will
be aware of it anyway) but I couldn't find any reference in the digests.
I received the following information from my weekly "CD Universe" bulletin -
"Visions of Plenty" and "Other Voices, Too" have been nominated in the best
folk album category in the Nashville 99 Music Awards. The nominations for
the categories of Americana, Country and Folk are:
AMERICANA ALBUM OF THE YEAR
1. Paul Burch & The WPA Ballclub, Wire To Wire, ( Dixiefrog)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=64046+11
2. Steve Earle, El Corazon, (E-Squared)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=7599+46789
3. Duane Jarvis, Far From Perfect, (Watermelon)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=7599+46789
4. Lonesome Bob, Things Fall Apart, (Checkered Past)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=64046+3
5. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, (Mercury)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=4228+558338
COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
1. Vince Gill, The Key, (MCA)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=76743+70017
2. Faith Hill, Faith, (Warner Bros.)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=7599+46790
3. Alan Jackson, High Mileage, (Arista)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=7822+18864
4. Jim Lauderdale, Whisper, (BNA)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=18636+66996
5. Randy Scruggs, Crown of Jewels, (Reprise)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=7599+46930
FOLK ALBUM OF THE YEAR
1. Kate Campbell, Visions Of Plenty, (Compass)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=6639+4251
2. Nanci Griffith, Other Voices Too, (Elektra)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=7559+62235
3. Riders In The Sky, A Great Big Western Howdy, (Rounder)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=11660+610430
4. Greg Trooper, Popular Demons, (Koch)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=99924+7997
5. Gillian Welch, Hell Among The Yearlings, (Almo Sounds)
http://cdu2.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?lc=5178+80021
Best Wishes,
Charlie (never done this double post before) Macdonald
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Nanci on HDTV
From: CISKESJ@mail.state.wi.us
As a 2+ year lurker, I have enjoyed the Nanci info posted in the digest.
While I may not be as rabid a devotee as some, i do have the
opportunity to listen to her CDs often while at work. I am a technology
consultant for school districts and usually have a CD in the computer
while I use the web or do my writing, etc...
Anyway, I was at a meeting where the new High Definition TVs were
beng demonstrated. I had seen the schtick before when the lady doing
the demo said the locally produced (Milwaukee, WI) PBS sample tape has
some new footage on it. No big deal. They were flashing quotations of
famous people (Martin Luther King, Robert Frost, etc..) and then
showing scenes to depict them when all of the sudden there is a quote
from Nanci. I am assuming it is from one of her songs (the music over
during the video was Enya, not Nanci). I tried to write it down and only
got the first few words. It was two lines long and dealth with storms at
sea (?). the first line started, "There's a storm..."
Can anyone help with the rest?
Stuart "Lurking with the best of them" Ciske
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Top Ten
From: Jabba9@aol.com
I need to let everyone know how important the Top Ten List is...
As a lurker, and folk neophyte, my major exposure to this fabulous music is
thru this digest and especially the Top Ten. You all have been instrumental
in exposing me to:
Beth Nielsen Chapman
Cheryl Wheeler
Iris Dement
Dar Williams
Steve Earle
Kathy Mattea
Pam Gadd
Kimmie Rhodes
...and many more.
Thanks....and keep up the great work!
Mike
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: another concert aside
From: "Thomas, Tasha" (TThomas@vilcom.com>
It's me again. Just one more thing, then I'm back to being a listener for
awhile...
I've read a couple postings from folks who attended the OV2 concerts, and
mentioned that they thought the different folks coming on and off stage to
sing, sometimes mid-song was distracting. I thought this was half the fun.
It was spontaneous and genuine, and I loved every minute. I too could have
done without Frank's two solos, especially if they could have been replaced
with two Nanci solos, but such is life.
I read a review in Dublin's "Evening Herald" (don't hold me to that exact
name, as I could be remmebering incorrectly) after the first Dublin show,
and the reviewer overall seemed to really enjoy the show, but she did
include one paragraph that in effect echoed the same sentiment as several
emails I've read about the number of people coming on and off stage. The
reviewer seemed to think that a couple numbers seemed as though they were
unrehearsed. I felt like the reviewer "just didn't get it", so I simply cut
that paragraph out of the review, before pasting it into my scrapebook.
Just my two cents worth.
Tasha, did I say how much I loved it, Thomas
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Re: Nanci on HDTV
From: "Blake Marshall" (bmarshall@worldnet.att.net>
> I tried to write it down and only
> got the first few words. It was two lines long and dealth with storms at
> sea (?). the first line started, "There's a storm..."
There's a storm out on the water
Oh, bless the ships at sea
There's a storm down in my lover's heart
Oh, God bless me
I wanna be blown by the wind of his breathing
Shown by lightening flashing
Oh, I've never been afraid of thunder
I wonder
Will he rain on me?
This is the chorus from the title cut from Storms. Eric Taylor wrote the
song. This strikes me as an odd one to include if the intent was to do
familiar lines from notable people. (Even more odd to attribute it to
Nanci, since she didn't write it.) Was there a theme to the quotes and
photos?
Blake
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Re: NanciNet #98C01
From: Scaryxxx@aol.com
I would just like to say thankyou to all the reviewers, the details from all
the shows left me smiling and wishing i could have joined you all. I am really
suprise (I don't know why) at how many NN we have across the world and the
feeling of friendship among Nanci's followers. I guess were covered for
details no matter where she tours. I hope this summer to be able to chime in
with some reports of great shows from Pa.
Gary
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Butch McDade
From: Halesbop@aol.com
Butch McDade, Amazing Rhythm Aces drummer, passed away early Sunday. The
following was fwded to the Ry Cooder listserve.
Steve
>David H. (Butch) McDade, 52, Maryville, TN, a lifelong drummer and
>founding member of The Amazing Rhythm Aces, passed away at 3:45am
>Sunday, November 29, 1998 at his home with his wife, Leslie, by his bedside.
>Cause not disclosed. Butch was survived by wife, Leslie, daughter Caralie
and
>son Gabriel; parents, Hugh T. and Jane McDade of Maryville; sisters Jane
>Monroe of Cleveland,TN and Ruth Prudhome of Jackson,TN; and several
>nieces and nephews.
>
>Memorial service will be held in Nashville on Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 at
>3rd & Lindsley Bar & Grill (816 Third Ave South, 259-9891) from 2-
>4pm.
>
>In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to:
>The Butch McDade Memorial Fund, PO Box 110551, Nashville, TN, 37222.
>
>A private family service will be held in Maryville, Tuesday, Dec. 1, at
>Memorial Funeral Home, 610 Washington St (423-983-2050).
// The original post included an obituary that you can read
// at the following URL:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/obituaries/12344.shtml
// [BP]
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Musings...
From: Steve Makarsky (thekidd@flash.net>
Amidst all of the glowing reviews of Nancis shows in Ireland and
England, the best I could do was watch some videos of Nanci (courtesy of
my buddy Ed)... These started me to thinking (which is always
dangerous)... ;-)
Maybe because its getting late... Maybe its because I got to thinking
about a good friend from high school who died 25 years ago today...
Maybe its because of the upcoming holiday season... But every so often,
fellow Nnetters share why they are Nanci fans... I guess its my turn...
So, why do I like Nanci Griffiths music? Hmm... Well, I guess when I
get right down to it, its this (bear with me): I believe we all have
a place that lies very close to our heart where we keep those people who
were very special to us... And even though we know theyre right there
next to our heart, we dont think about them everyday... And the reason
we dont think about them is because there are usually some significant
- painful - emotions surrounding their memories... Typically, these are
the loss of love and its associated emotions: regret and doubt... The
regrets surrounding the If Id only said this or If Id only done
that... And the nagging - and often unanswerable - doubts whether this
wouldve made a difference... If anything wouldve made a difference...
But its important that we stop every now and then and think about these
people... To remember them... Afterall, for some period in your life -
and for whatever reason - your world revolved around them... They deeply
touched your life... And when you do stop to remember them, you -
somehow - reaffirm your own humaness... And through this, your ties with
humanity and those things that make us human...
Nancis songs - thru the lyrical imagery and her wonderful voice - often
cause me to stop and think about these people who are gone but whom Ive
held on to so closely... No other artist can make me do this...
Steve Reckon its been a long day...
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Article in The Independent/London
From: Bell/Wrightson (onemansmusic@mindspring.com>
I love it -- that "daft woman!"
Morning all,
Sarah
Essay: `It's a hard life wherever you go' for the last, great, folk heroine
Spurned by radio, America's traditional music is struggling just to
survive. That it has made it this far is largely the work of Nanci
Griffith. Jasper Rees on the life of that `Daft Woman' Nanci Griffith
* 11/29/98
The Independent - London
(Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC)
Last Sunday in Dublin, three people were folding their creaking
limbs into a minibus parked outside a hotel off Grafton Street. They
looked an improbable menage. A tall, white-bearded man with pebble-
lens glasses and a broad-brimmed hat; a short, black woman in a
braided skull cap; a strong-jawed woman, the youngster at perhaps
sixty, with straw platinum hair. The faces may not mean much, but
the names will ring a bell to anyone familiar with the Greenwich
Village coffee house sound of the early 1960s: Dave Van Ronk, Odetta,
Carolyn Hester. If you dropped a bomb on the bus as it ferried them
to a rehearsal in the Olympia Theatre, Bob Dylan would suddenly find
himself attending a lot of funerals.
This folk encyclopaedia made flesh is accompanying Nanci Griffith
on a short tour of Dublin, Glasgow and London, where, tonight and
tomorrow, they will round off the Barbican's Inventing America
season. In total 23 musicians have assembled to mark the release of
Other Voices, Too: A Trip Back to Bountiful, Griffith's second volume
of cover songs from the rich folk tradition in American music. The
first volume, Other Voices, Other Rooms, won her a Grammy five years
ago.
You don't want to enquire to closely about the average age of the
Dublin ensemble. At the rehearsal I got talking to one of the
younger-looking musicians at the side of the stage. He turned out to
be Ian Matthews, who joined Fairport Convention in 1967. He is now
52. Griffith routinely refers to these repositories of musical
wisdom as "our elders". At 44, she is just abut the youngest person
on stage. That's quite an age to be a spring chicken, as her recent
health record testifies. She was operated on for breast cancer two
years ago, and last month finished a course of radiotherapy to deal
with thyroid cancer.
Ageism is the battle that folk music has been fighting ever since
a conservative music industry decided to distance itself from a left-
leaning genre in the early 1970s. All these musicians will ruefully
tell you that folk is the F word. Some time after Dylan went
electric, folkies were rebranded singer-songwriters, while the term
folk gathered dust on the shelf.
Griffith convened the Other Voices project to blow away the
cobwebs. For a dozen or so years Griffith, a songbird with a
country accent, has been the folk singer people on both sides of the
Atlantic have used as a route map round the territory. She in turn
has deployed her own musical standing to exhume the reputation of
folk composers who have found it hard to find a modern audience.
"She's done things for all of us," enthuses Carolyn Hester in the
wings of the Olympia. "I've never experienced anything like it.
There's no ego here. Everybody is helping each other."
The plan with Other Voices, Too is to revisit a specific period
from pop's innocent past in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was a
time when, says Griffith, "folk, rock'n'roll and the blues all merged
on a very commercial level on radio. They weren't singled out or put
into any cubby hole at all. They were just hits. We want to say,
`Hey, it played on the radio just fine. Why all of a sudden do you
say it can't be played on the radio?' "
Radio is music's oxygen. Griffith sings of its liberating
influence in "Listen To The Radio", one of her best known songs,
which doubles as a tribute to the gritty Nashville diva Loretta Lynn.
It tells of a woman who leaves her brutal husband and drives out of
town with the radio on. These days she wouldn't be able to find a
decent radio station to listen to - certainly none that plays Lynn or
Griffith or Griffith's guests on either album.
On the first album the guest list included such luminaries as
Dylan, John Prine, Woody Guthrie's son Arlo, Guy Clark, Chet Atkins,
Emmylou Harris and Leo Kottke. For the follow-up Griffith summoned
an even heavier brigade, most of the above, plus half of Texas - Lyle
Lovett, Steve Earle, the Crickets, Griffith's ex-husband Eric Taylor
- sundry survivors from the 35-year-old Village scene, plus a
sprinkling of British folkies, led by Richard Thompson. But it's
largely the recruitment of Van Ronk, on the album and on tour, that
gives the project its scholarly patina. An old-looking 62, Van Ronk
is the closest folk music gets to its own professor. You can
practically see the thought-bubble floating above his head framing
the question, what precisely is folk music?
"The appellation has always been problematic," Van Ronk explains
in a dingy kitchen backstage. "You can get 10 scholars in a room and
get 15 different definitions of what folk music is. I myself have a
very strict definition. It's traditional music passed on orally.
The minute you know who wrote it, it ain't folk music."
According to those parameters, not much on Griffith's two
anthologies qualify. Luckily, Griffith's take on folk is generous
enough to embrace almost every generic shade.
"Folk music to me is a great broad sense of things," she says.
"It is the writer who is capable of capturing their social time and
climate, in which they live, to pass on to the next generation." By
her lights, even rap music qualifies in a broad church sheltering Van
Ronk's minutely exclusive sect.
But whichever way you slice it, folk is old timer's music: hand-
me-down tunes can't be handed down until one generation has spawned
another one to hand it down to. Griffith tells a signal story of
recording with Ian Tyson, one half of the 1960s folk duo Ian and
Sylvia, for Other Voices, Too. "We started singing together, and Ian
said, `How can she do this? She's matching my phrasing and singing
it word for word with me.' Jim (Rooney, the producer) just looked at
him and said, `Do you think she didn't listen to you from the cradle?
She knows every nuance of your voice.' " That's your folk tradition
in action. It's also your proof positive of the brittle morale in
the folk community. Tyson 65, couldn't quite believe that even
Griffith would be intimate with his singing style. In effect, the
two Other Voices albums attempt to turn up the volume on the fading
soundtrack of Griffith's youth.
Her antecedents were musical. As a preacher between the wars her
great- grandfather, a Welsh veteran of both sides in the American
Civil War, led a church quartet with his sons. Nanci was brought up
in Austin, Texas, by parents she describes as "beatniks". They moved
in artistic circles but, it seems, always the same ones. "They had
very different tastes in things. My father would go to a coffee
house to listen to folk music and my mother would go hear a swing
band." He was into country; she hated it, and still does. "When I
wrote `Ford Econoline'," says Griffith of one of her twangier
compositions, "my mother said, `I dislike that song so much'."
Her parents separated when she was six. She acknowledges that
musical differences may have signalled a deeper incompatibility.
They seemed to agree on only one thing, that Nanci didn't need much
looking after. There was no custody agreement, and in the place of
parental authority there was "total neglect". From the age of 12 to
l6 she and a boyfriend truffled the dung-enriched fields outside
Austin for magic mushrooms. She was also dyslexic. "I learnt to
type on mushrooms," she says. "I was a terrible student but I
excelled in that because I could get into this rhythm." The
boyfriend drove his motorbike into a tree at l6 and died. Griffith
moved to her sister's in Houston. You can still hear the echo of
this and other trials - her parents' divorce; her violent marriage to
Taylor, a heroin addict and Vietnam survivor; her ten largely
homeless years driving from bar gig to bar gig all over America - in
Griffith's songs of loneliness and loss and cussed self-sufficiently.
But there were consolations in a beatnik upbringing. Her conquest
of dyslexia deepened her love of reading. On three of her album
covers she is clutching books as if they're badges of achievement.
Other Voices, Other Rooms takes its title from Truman Capote's first
novel, which she ecstatically hugs in the cover shot. Reading, as
well as her father's guiding taste, may in turn have sent her in the
direction of folk, because no other type of music so clearly aspires
to the condition of literature (often, it must be said, to the
detriment of melodic invention).
Why Capote? "Because he and Tennessee Williams wrote prose that
read like poetry. When Truman wrote the book it was really about
finding one's own roots and facing them." So it goes. The sub-title
of the second volume "came from Horton Foote's film A Trip to
Bountiful, which is about an elderly woman's venture to try to get to
her home town, because that's where all things started".
If folk music, like the literature of the US South, is largely a
matter of where you come from, there's a perfect encapsulation of
that on Other Voices, Too. "Wasn't That A Mighty Storm" - in
Griffith's version a rip- roaring gospel anthem for 40 famous voices
- is so atavistic that even Van Ronk is prepared to call if folk. "
No one knows who wrote it," says Griffith. "It's an oral history
that was passed on and ended up in the Library of Congress in the
archives." It tells of the storm on 18 September 1900 that destroyed
the Texan harbour at Galveston. After New York, Galveston was the
second port of entry to America, and several of Griffith's ancestors
- from Cardiff and Aberdeen - first set foot on American soil on the
Galveston dock. The storm, says Griffith, "is probably the most
famous hurricane in America, because it was so destructive. Every
time I've read about what's been going on in Central America, I've
seen the storm of 1900 referred to. " When Griffith sings it, she
thinks of her 101-year-old grandmother, "knowing that she doesn't
remember it because she was too young". And that'll do as a working
definition of folk: the historical rooted in the personal routed
through the musical and the topical.
The oddity of the umbilicus linking Griffith to her roots is that
she is a prophet without honour in the Lone Star State.
She recently wrote to several Texan publications to complain of
consistently bad reviews. "I'm the only native female songwriter
that's every gone across the Red River and made something of herself.
I totally get ignored because I don't fit the mould. I'm not a good
old boy, I don't wear hats, I don't wear boots. I don't play the
game. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Austin Chronicle and
said, `I've taken 20 years of your abuse. I'm very upset about it.
Leave me alone.' They said, `This is what we expect of this daft
woman.' " So she doesn't yearn to make the trip back to Bountiful so
much that she'll actually go and live there.
The "daft woman" has been described elsewhere as America's tuning
fork. The last person of whom that was said is Pete Seeger. Like
Seeger, whose band the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy
hearings, part of Griffith's essence as a folk singer is that she can
make enemies. But it's a skill that most folk singers have lost,
which may explain why folk music is now on the life-support machine
of Griffith's patronage. The battles for civil and workers' rights
have been won; the hammer of justice in Seeger's "The Hammer Song",
which closes Other Voices, Too, has helped shape a society that folk
singers can't really grumble about.
In the course of our conversation Griffith vents her spleen on
an array of topical issues, the Starr Report, Christian
fundamentalism, women's issues. But not much of this surfaces in her
work. The song with which she closes most shows, and the one that
should be around in 100 years, is "It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go".
But it doesn't say anything new, or not according to her 101-year-old
grandmother. "As far as she's concerned," says Griffith, "it's the
most important piece of music I've ever written. It just showed
that I was paying attention when she was talking to me."
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: Barbican concert
From: "Hans Janssen" (hjanssen@mail.dotcom.fr>
Hi all,
After the reviews from Robert, George and other I don't have much to do add.
Both evenings were great, my fav's are: The duet with Dave van Ronk in He
was a friend of mine and Who knows where the time goes.
This afternoon the photos will be processed and I hope to open a speciall
webpage about the concert and the NN gathering this weekend.
And I hope to see Nanci next year with the LSO.
met vriendelijke groeten,
Hans Janssen.
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: RE: Musings...
From: "Avery, Debora" (AveryD@chi.osu.edu>
What I've noticed when we start discussing why we like Nanci is that no one
ever just says," I just like her music." The reasons may vary a bit, but
every one I've ever read has held one idea in common: whether through her
voice or her lyrics, Nanci touches deeply a part of us that is at other
times untouchable.
Debbie
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: London review
From: RHG899@aol.com
History clear as mud
Clive Davis,
Sunday Times, Sunday November 29th. 1998
A few years ago Nanci Griffith appropriated a Truman Capote title Other
Voices, Other Rooms, for a collection of country-folk evergreens. Her new
album Other Voices, Too forms another homespun version of the Great American
Songbook weaving together music by figures as disparate as Johnny Cash and the
great grandfather of them all, Stephen Foster.
Trying to condense so many strands into a single concert is hard enough,
especially with a long line of guest performers to accommodate in so short a
time. What made her task at the Barbican even more difficult was yet another
dubious sound mix the Barbican is beginning to set a record in this
particular field.
Griffiths intimate art is all about story-telling, smalltown short stories
set to music. If the nuances are difficult to hear above the rest of her
modestly proportioned band, then we might as well stay at home with a compact
disc. Switching on a modest and rather superfluous light show every couple
of songs is not much of a substitute.
She was generous enough to allow other singers to take the limelight at
regular intervals. As a child she had listened to her parents recordings of
Odetta; now she stood to one side as the veteran singer led the way through
Kombaya. Her voice at least was potent enough not to be lost in the aural
smog. Faces came and went at speed. Singer-song-writer Tom Russell took cen-
tre stage on Canadian Whiskey. Griffith's former husband, Eric Taylor,
injected some country-blues muscle on his segment.
Griffiths own range extends beyond Americana. Richard Thompsons Wall of
Death, which opens her new album, went off at full throttle with the
assistance of the veteran British folkie Clive Gregson. Dolores Keanes
presence brought a reminder of the affinities with Irelands folk tradition,
while Griffiths fellow Texan Carolyn Hester chose to pay tribute to her
British hosts with an odd choice of ballad celebrating the star-crossed lovers
of the Abdication crisis. Wallis Simpson not exactly your average
sharecropper makes a curious folk heroine to say the least.
Griffith herself did not shy away from taking up the old campaigning battle-
cry on If I had A Hammer. Her own song, Its a Hard Life Wherever You Go fits
snugly into the same canon. No mistaking which side she was on either in her
traditionalist, hymn-like rendition of Fosters lament Hard Times Come Again
no More. There was, she reminded us. a melancholy side to the man who wrote
Camptown Races.
----------------
Was this reviewer at the same concert as the people writing in NanciNet
No.98CO1 ????? Obviously not as besotted as the rest of us !
Bob Greene rhg899@aol.com
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Subject: re:NN:re: Why no warning?
From: "jenny.frog" (jenny.frog@virgin.net>
hey guys, while we're talking about blue roses,
> When I think back now about the Blue Roses album I get sort
> of a good feeling. (snippity snip> the excitement
> of anticipating it's release was electrifying. I really
> feel the album accomplished the goal Nanci set for it, that
> being to showcase the talents of the Blue Moon Orchestra.
well, i actually like blue roses now. i wasn't on the list for it's
release, so the first i heard was reading an article in the *herald* on
nanci with tour dates and a release date. i bought it almost as soon as
it came out and i really, really hated it. i couldn't see what nanci was
trying to do. all i heard was the t-wangs! on *i fought* and *morning
train* and knew i didn't like 'em.
but it's grown on me a lot, especially *st teresa* and i'm totally in
love with the string arrangement at the beginning of *gulf coast
highway* .wow. if i ever lay hands on sheet music for that.....oohh.....
debs, i know what ya mean about nanci's voice, it was definetly doing
something very strange on the record, but have you ever noticed that
nanci has an entirely different voice for every album???? soft and girly
for storms, deeper and richer, stronger for LNGH, lilty for PIMW, ....
just my thoughts
luv jenny
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: OVT review in Time
From: Michael Wilt (mwilt@smp.org>
Griffsters,
of Time Magazine. It's written by Richard Corliss, who gave Blue Roses a
glowing review in Time back when it came out--probably the only glowing
review Blue Roses got! Here's his take on OVT:
"beautiful 19-song set proves that traditional music, as embodied in the
folk revival of the '50s and '60s, is a potent language that still
speaks eloquently. Inviting singer-songwriters of that mighty time
(Carolyn Hester, Dave Van Ronk) to swap harmony with their current
avatars (Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams), Griffith is host to an all-star
sing-out: great versions of He Was a Friend of Mine and Wasn't That a
Mighty Storm. For the young, this package will offer not memories but
revelations, if they can just find it--in the back of the store, under
FOLK."
Better late than never for a review, I guess, especially when the name
of the magazine is Time.
Michael
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: NN: flowers
From: I (100451.1006@compuserve.com>
Hi
One of our European members wrote about the Barbican concert and mentioned
that he had thrown some flowers on stage on Monday but that Nanci had not
seen them.
I saw the flowers hit the deck so I can tell him that they had been taken
backstage and unwrapped by the time I got there after the show so I think
it was mission successful after all! :>)
Ian R
_________________________________________________________________
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