NanciNet Digest 10-24-01
// A concert reports, a note from Nanci's management, and more!
// Enjoy! [BP
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Subject: NN: Edinburgh 21st October (Longish)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 10:52:49 +0000
From: "John Courtney" (jc_riselaw@hotmail.com>
Hi there.
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 21st October.
Setlist (from memory - the order is almost certainly wrong in places):
Speed of the Sound of Loneliness
These Days in an Open Book
Trouble in the Fields
Two For the Road
Clock Without Hands
Ghost Inside of Me
>From A Distance
Lost Him in the Sun
Hard Life..
Shaking Out the Snow
Gulf Coast Highway
Armstrong
Travelling Through This Part of You
Where Would I Be
If I Had a Hammer
Encore:
The same Phil Ochs and TVZ songs mentioned previously (titles have gone
right out of my head.)
This was very nearly a truly magical evening. Nanci sounded and looked
wonderful. To my ear, the John Stewart songs from CWH didn't come over too
well but everything else, old and new, was fine - particular highlights
being TTTPOY and probably the best GCH I've ever heard.
SOTS was interesting. Nanci took great pains to assure us that she bore no
ill-will to her brother over the "Christmas morn" episode and that verse
came over as a sort of amusing little story, which seemed to lose what I had
assumed to be the point. No matter, it sounded great.
Unfortunately, the evening was loaded down with excess baggage in the form
of the most bizarrely elongated spoken introductions in the history of
popular music. I have always enjoyed Nanci's quirky mixture of jokes and
sometimes rambling anecdotes before but, on this occasion, she seemed
incapable of letting go of them. Everything was padded to about three times
its normal length and the padding was hesitant, repetitive and not
particularly entertaining. (Excluded from this is the passionate, angry
monologue on September 11 and its aftermath introducing FAD - that was
something else entirely).
The audience was very supportive and stayed on side (even forgiving her for
relocating us to "Birmingham, England" at one point - no way to endear
yourself to folk in these parts) but towards the end some people were
getting a bit restless.
All-in-all, plenty to enjoy on a filthy wet night in Edinburgh but the
feeling at the end of what should have been an extraordinary triumph seemed
a bit muted.
All the best
John C.
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Subject: NN: Concerts For A Landmine Free World
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 01 17:33:05 EDT
From: Nanci Griffith (Info) (info@NanciGriffith.com>
In early December, Nanci will again take the stage in support of the Vietnam
Veterans of America Foundations (VVAF) Campaign For A Landmine Free World.
She will be joined by Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bruce Cockburn,
Steve Earle and Patty Griffin for a series of concerts in Chicago (12/2),
Detroit (12/3), Cleveland (12/4), Pittsburgh (12/5) and Philadelphia (12/5).
Since 1998, the VVAF has presented its Concerts For A Landmine Free World
series across the U.S. and Canada, delivering a unique acoustic,
in-the-round musical experience. All proceeds from the concerts support
programs of the VVAF that assist the innocent victims of conflict around the
world, and their work to raise American public awareness of the global
landmine crisis.
For more information, please visit the tour section or the VVAF web site at:
http://www.vvaf.org
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Subject: NN: What bird?
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 14:10:45 +0000
From: "Mike Barrett" (mikebarrettuk@hotmail.com>
Original Message
>From: ConorMG@aol.com
>I just got a copy of 'Poet in my Window' and wonder why the heck all >you
>people out there haven't let on how good this cd is.
Yes, an excellent album. I particularly like "Working In Corners" and "You
Can't Go Home Again", two of my all time favourites, but all the tracks are
very good. I'm quite envious of the fact that you're discovering these
delights for the first time!
>wonder if others see her as a goldcrest,
>a swan, a swallow or what?
Goldcrest? Yes, I can appreciate your reasoning, though I'd be more
inclined towards Firecrest. Same family but much rarer, far more
attractive, and always a delight to see. But the song is unexceptional -
distinctive and nice enough, but unexceptional, and I would say that we need
something that looks good and sounds good. I'm only fully familiar and
conversant with UK species so I'll go with what I know.
The Nightingale has a beautiful song but is a very ordinary looking bird,
while the Kingfisher is an absolute stunner to look at but only seems
capable of short loud whistles. Swans and swallows are somewhat lacking
vocally as well.
I'm thinking warblers at present, and one in particular. The Willow Warbler
is a lovely little creature, elegant and full of character, easy to see but
often overlooked, with a delightfully melodious song that I never tire of
hearing. Which in many ways summarises Nanci quite well...
We do have a possible problem re this topic. I've only been birding a
couple of times in the States, and I'm not sure that you have
goldcrests/firecrests etc. You do of course have some wonderful tanagers
and cardinals, but I'm not sure what they sound like. As an aside, I recall
being initially confused when I was over there by the fact that many birds
were described as "robin size" or "smaller/larger than a robin", until I
realised that the American robin is far larger than ours in Europe, which is
no bigger than a sparrow.
Mike Barrett,
whose current ambition is to be reborn as a miniature pincher :)
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Subject: NN: vince @ Sundilla
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:32:33 -0500
From: "Lorrie Chase" (lchase@webshoppe.net>
OK all ye Nanci folks. I've posted about the Sundilla series in Auburn
Alabama before and if you can make it this Saturday, you will be doing
yourself a favor. So far in the last 6 months I've seen Eric Taylor,
Kate Campbell and now Vince there. I'll let one of the organizers say
it best:
-------------------------------------------------------
A legend will take the stage Saturday night in the person of Vince Bell.
"Legend" isn't a word to be tossed around lightly, but Bell qualifies.
In the 70s and early 80s, he was performing with the likes of Townes Van
Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark and Lyle Lovett, and in 1982 he was
recording his debut album with help from Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric
Anderson. While returning from the studio late one night, he was
broadsided by a drunk driver; he was so badly injured that the local
paper printed his obituary.
While rumors of his death were exaggerated, he was in a coma for a
month, and it took years for him to regain the ability to balance, to
stand, to speak, to remember his music and to learn to use his mangled
right arm. He didn't just come back "good as new;" he came back better.
Twelve years after his life-threatening accident, he released Phoenix to
critical and public acclaim.
Critics and fans alike heap praise upon Bell, but the highest praise
comes from his peers. According to Lyle Lovett, "He was a great
songwriter before the accident, and he has continued to be a great
songwriter after the accident. He writes songs about his life, and when
I would listen to Vince's songs, I would want to know about the person
singing the songs. I think that's what great songs do." Nanci Griffith
says "From all of us who were beating the paths around Texas in the 70s,
I always felt Vince was the best of us." And the late Townes Van Zandt
omitted needless words and succinctly stated "Vince is a poet."
To be considered a great Texas singer-songwriter is high praise indeed.
Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Eric Taylor, Nanci Griffith, Vince Bell... put
them in any order you want and it doesn't matter. They are all great,
and the chance to see one perform should never be passed up. Saturday
night you will have a chance; don't pass it up. (And if you've been
invited to a Halloween party that night, show up a little late. Save
some time and come in costume! And you can justify it by saying that
what would be more appropriate near Halloween than to go see a singer
who once rose from the grave? (And if that isn't enough, you should know
that this will be the first concert since the release of his latest CD.
That makes this concert his first live post-release performance. That's
a big deal, and one you don't want to miss being part of!)
Vince Bell will be performing on Saturday, October 27 at 8:00. Admission
is just $10; children 12 and under get in free. There will be free
coffee (provided by The Big Blue Bagel), free water, and free snacks
prepared by the Sundilla Volunteer kitchen maestros. As always, you are
welcome to bring whatever food or beverage you prefer. And again, you
are invited-- even encouraged-- to come to this almost-Halloween show in
costume. Just don't miss this concert! (If you need any more
information, call 334-826-0102, or see our website at www.sundilla.org.)
-------------------------------------
How I'd love to see some of you guys who are close by show up! It's a
very intimate, friendly, laid back venue. I'll see you there STEVE!!!
And of course can't wait to see Sarah again!
Lorrie "some things seem to good to be true."
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Subject: Re: NN: vince @ Sundilla
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 09:54:59 -0400
From: Steve Robertson (stever@mindspring.com>
on 10/22/01 11:32 AM, Lorrie Chase at lchase@webshoppe.net wrote:
> OK all ye Nanci folks. I've posted about the Sundilla series in Auburn
> Alabama before and if you can make it this Saturday, you will be doing
> yourself a favor. So far in the last 6 months I've seen Eric Taylor,
> Kate Campbell and now Vince there.
Lorrie's message doesn't need any reinforcement, but I'll ad my two cents
anyway. Those shows she mentioned- plus Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer- are
all among the best live performances I've ever seen. The audience at
Sundilla has been growing rapidly over the last few months- from about 40
people at Eric's show to the SRO crowd of 185 at Kate's show.
I'll be there- hopefully with a carload of folks from Atlanta. Auburn, AL,
has an airport, and the residents are friendly. You won't have to compete
with the football fans, since the Auburn football team is out of town. So
make those reservations now!
--
>From the Georgia Pines,
Steve Robertson
====================================
_________Fiddlin' Around____________
The Journal of American Roots Music on the web at
http://www.starchart.com/
====================================
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Subject: NN: Big Smith [no Nanci content]
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 14:27:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Reid Mitchell (reidmitchell@yahoo.com>
Has anybody out there heard the Missouri group BIG
SMITH? I'm just listening to their cd. At their
best, they sound like some old style southern string
band that played gospel and vaudville and somehow
acquired electric guitars and along the way developed
an attitude both surly and ironic.
Reid Mitchell
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Subject: NN: RE: NN what bird is N?
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 19:49:51 -0400
From: "Ken Stiffler" (ksmsc@kmsx.net>
ConorMG wrote:
>>I just got a copy of 'Poet in my Window' and wonder why the heck all you
people out there haven't let on how good this cd is. Most of her records
have grown on
((
PIMW *may* not be Nanci's best CD, but if not, it's close.
And, BTW, I've been one of the guilty ones - overlooking There's A Light
Beyond These Woods. Well, I've been shotgunning it over the past week, and
have to admit that it has really grown on me. I think my lack of interest
prior to now has been it's dryness, both instrumentally and Nanci's vocals.
Nearly all of her vocals on TALBTW are her more astringent, (dare I say
strident?) style. And, though I've always liked her soft vocals better (not
only, just better), maybe it's a backlash against Clock Without Hands that
has me appreciating TALBTW so much now.
I've been disappointed because there is a new Nanci Griffith CD out and I'm
not playing it over and over and over again. But everything's fine now -
though I've had TALBTW for about 10 years, it has just become my "new" Nanci
Griffith CD to play over and over and etc. I *knew* there was a reason I
never wanted to listen to TALBTW before. :)
Now, when I go on the road, TALBTW won't automatically be left at home.
Ken "likes to play Poet In My Window and Last Of The True Believers back to
back, not necessarily in that order" Stiffler
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Subject: NN: Nanci slays dragons
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:41:14 -0700
From: "Julie" (julieanne-101@home.com>
With Nanci bravely out on the road in these times, performing If I Were A
Child (written I believe when she was 15) with Tom Russell, and delivering
her flesh and bones masterpiece Shaking Out The Snow, I thought it a good
time to pass along these excerpts from a wonderfully written article by Tom
Russell about the Nanci he knows. It's from Sing Out magazine, Fall 1986.
Tom tells of the first time he heard Nanci sing and the first time they sang
together, and we get a reminder that her CWH theme of non-complacency is
something she's written and sung about for a long time. It's a piece full
of admiration for her many facets of courage.
Julie.
-----------------------------
NANCI GRIFFITH: PASSING BY THE DRAGONS
by: Tom Russell
"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the world. Then
artists come along and discover it in the same way, all over again. Here
and there, it's the same world. Or now and then we'll hear from an artist
who never lost it." Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings.
I sat there by the fire, in the Texas hills, taking my turn with the guitar.
It was the 1976 Kerrville Folk Festival at one of the all-night campfire
sessions, and you were as close to sainthood as your last good song. Out
beyond the firelight, groups of listeners fanned out in the pasture grass.
It went round and round -- pass the guitar, take your best shot, pass the
wine. Applause and hoots. Pass the guitar.
The ritual was broken by a gruff voice from the shadows barking: "Let HER
sing one." The "her" in this case turned out to be a delicate-looking young
woman sitting at the edge of the darkness. Somebody invited her into the
circle, and as she moved into the light you could have mistaken her for a
teenaged waif -- white blouse, jeans, and a long pony-tail hanging down over
a big Martin D-28 guitar. She began finger picking and singing her song,
"If I Were A Child."
"If I were a child, I would cry and beg your pardon." She delivered it with
a wild, fragile beauty. "But I am just a lady you never tried to
understand." . . . . . I wondered who in the hell she was. She finished
and the applause echoed through the hills. Instant sainthood. "That was
Nanci Griffith," said her gruff-voiced friend. "She writes songs."
I found out she sang every Sunday night at a bar in Austin called The Hole
in the Wall. The place was aptly named. The clientele was a savage
cross-section of winos, bikers and fraternity rats. They came to drink the
cheap beer and carve their names on the toilet walls. A loud, desperate
venue. I tried playing the gig but couldn't cut it. I didn't have health
insurance or disability. I made the professional error of trying to argue
with drunks between songs. I packed it in.
Nanci worked The Hole in the Wall every Sunday for five years. "It was the
toughest bar you'd ever have to play in," she says. "You could always hear
the pinball machine in the backroom and there was always a bar fight around
one-fifteen every night. One time, Big Boy Medlin [who later wrote the
screenplay for Roadie] smashed some guy's head against the cigarette machine
in the middle of my set. That's the only time I ever stopped playing...only
time in my career."
Nanci worked the room like you'd break a rank colt. For months on end she
fought them, won the crowd over, and quieted them down. They began to stare
back in wonder at the voice and those poetic lyrics. The barroom child was
learning her craft.
"She's just a hill country girl home from the city. Her pockets full of
plenty of those neon lights. And her mother's smile shines on her youngest
child. Though she is just a barroom singer, with her father's eyes." Nanci
Griffith, Waltzing With The Angels.
. . . . . Nanci's musical roots are based in folk music, but her writing
style always carried evidence of a prose writer's skills. She has a poet's
eye and a novelist's sense of time and place. As her experience as a
writer-performer continues to grow, that writer's vision remains grounded in
the West Texas hills. Nanci remains true to her writer's voice -- her lines
ring with traces of Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty.
I thought of Nanci's work while reading a recent account of Texas playwright
Horton Foote. In addition to his many plays, Foote wrote the screenplays
for Tender Mercies, A Trip to Bountiful, and To Kill a Mockingbird. "Horton
Foote," stated the New York Times, "has a specific voice, a specific style,
and he has never abandoned it...never cut his talent to the fashion of the
time...never wavered from that vision." Nanci Griffith has never wavered
from that vision -- that sense of style and place. She has continued to
develop the continuing novel -- the story of the Texas barroom child on the
road, living the dream. Throughout four albums she has never copped-out to
what is fashionable. She has told the story as she's seen it, always
returning in her heart to the hill country.
"Folded memories in my soul. It's that old blue line, that you can never go
home." Nanci Griffith, You Can't Go Home Again.
. . . . . The album ends with the beautiful "Wing And The Wheel." The song
reveals the fate of may of the dreamers who have waltzed through Nanci's
songs. ("Where are all the dreamers that I used to know?...Now they all
live out in the suburbs where their dreams are in their children at play.")
Nanci was inspired to write the song after meeting the Nicaraguan singers
Duo Guardabarranco at the Vancouver Folk Festival last year. I was deceived
into thinking this was a lilting tune for dreamers until Nanci revealed the
intent behind the lyrics. "The whole purpose of that song," she says, "is
to make [people] feel guilty...[when] they lead useless lives. Like our
parents, they expect their children to fulfill the dream they had when they
were youths..."
"The dragon weeps with empty eyes..." Nanci Griffith/Eric Taylor, Ghost In
The Music.
As I listened again to Nanci's five albums and that early sampler, I thought
back over ten years and recalled the first time we played on the same bill
together. It was a hamburger joint in Houston -- a "basket house" where the
waitress passed the hat for the performers. I remember Nanci sitting on an
old couch in the back room, waiting to go on, her hands folded in her lap.
I thought of her as a young Carson McCullers waiting to go out and read her
prose to the savage hordes.
I made a mistake in judgment back then. I thought of Nanci Griffith as too
sensitive to survive, too fragile. I thought of her as an artist who would
surely be chewed up by the music business -- the barrooms, drunks,
glad-handers and sleezy agents. The dragons who lie in waiting. Nanci
Griffith has not only endured, she has, to coin Hemingway, prevailed. I've
heard her sing around campfires, in basket houses and honkytonks like The
Hole in the Wall. I've watched her on stage in Switzerland playing solo to
thousands of drunks dressed up as cowboys and Indians, seen this raving
audience turn quiet and listen, though most of them couldn't understand
English. From the bloodbuckets to the best listening rooms, she has never
wavered from her special sound and writer's voice.
She's out there tonight singing, protected by her inner strength and driven
by her creative vision. I'm reminded of a quote attributed to St. Cyril
which Flannery O'Conner used to open one of her prose books: "The dragon
sits by the side of the road watching those who pass. Beware, lest he
devour you. We go to the Father of Souls...But it is necessary to pass by
the dragons."
Flannery O'Conner added a sentence which speaks directly to the aim of all
serious writing: "It's this mysterious passage past the dragon or into his
jaws that stories of any depth will always be concerned to tell."
Nanci is out on the road, passing by the dragons -- never afraid to tell of
the passage and the way it was, and is, in the heart of the writer.
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Subject: NN: Obscure Nanci Reference
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 10:01:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill Page (bpage3@yahoo.com>
Last week, while reading an otherwise forgettable novel, I came across a
surprising reference to Nanci.
In J.R. Ripley's "Lost in Austin," protagonist Tony Kozol and his old friend,
now an Austin cop, discuss Kozol's guitar. His friend picks it up to try it
out, and "played a soulful version of 'It's a Hard Life'." The friend then
goes on to mention how good Nanci is.
"J.R. Ripley" is the nom de plume of Glenn Meganck, a musician whose latest
CD is also entitled "Lost in Austin." I'm not familiar with his work.
http://glennmeganck.com/index.html
The book is "Lost in Austin," by J.R. Ripley, published by Long Wind
Publishing.
Bill "I kinda like Shaking Out the Snow" Page
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Subject: NN: RE: Nanci slays dragons
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:53:27 -0400
From: "Ken Stiffler" (ksmsc@kmsx.net>
That's an impressive article by Tom Russell. If only more reporters /
feature writers could write that well. Any Tom fans here know if he has
written any prose that's available?
I guess I'm going to have to get off my rear and go out and buy Steve
Earle's book. Been meaning to do that - expecting a good read - but haven't
been in any book stores lately.
Ken
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Subject: NN: Lucy Kaplansky Album
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 15:05:26 +0100
From: James Wilson (J.Wilson@ucc.ac.uk>
I know Lucy backed on I think one Nanci song, but I just bought her new
album (Every Single Day)(and I'm not buying many these days) but I have
to say how great it is. It's quite similar in sound to her first album,
but even better I think. She has a very likeable style and her songs are
consistently of a high standard. If you're wondering what to do next,
or in need of some new sounds, I think most everyone would like her music.
Jim
UK
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Subject: Re: NN: Lucy Kaplansky Album
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 07:39:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Johnsen (wsjohnsen@yahoo.com>
I have to emphatically agree with Jim! Not only is Lucy fantastic on this
album, but John Gorka, Jennifer Kimball and Richard Schindell's background
vocals combined with Duke Levine's accompanying guitar are fabulous!
- Scott
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