Straddling the fine line between
folk and
country music,
Nanci Griffith has become as well-known for her brilliant confessional songwriting as her beautiful voice. A self-styled "folkabilly" singer,
Griffith began as a kindergarten teacher and occasional folksinger. The
country scene took her to heart in the mid-'80s, giving her a reputation as a quality songwriter through hit covers of
Griffith's songs by
Kathy Mattea and
Suzy Bogguss.
Finding no luck with commercial
country radio however,
Griffith recorded several pop-oriented albums and then returned to her
folk roots by the mid-'90s.
Griffith was the daughter of musical parents, and she spent her childhood involved with theater and literature as well as music. She began playing clubs around Austin at the tender age of 14 and continued to perform during her college years at the University of Texas and even while she taught kindergarten in the mid-'70s.
Griffith finally decided to make music her full-time ambition in 1977. Her songwriting won an award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, prompting the local label BF Deal to record
Griffith for a compilation and later for her debut album,
There's a Light Beyond These Woods (1978).
Griffith's hectic touring schedule took her all over North America, playing festivals and TV shows in addition to the small clubs in which she had begun. Meanwhile, she recorded albums in 1982 (
Poet in My Window) and 1985 (
Once in a Very Blue Moon).
Griffith signed with MCA and released her major-label debut,
Lone Star State of Mind, in 1987. With it, she popularized the
Julie Gold song "From a Distance" -- later covered by
Bette Midler -- but also gave
Griffith her first
country Top 40 hit, the title song. Two other singles from the album, "Trouble in the Fields" and "Cold Hearts/Closed Minds," also grazed the
country charts.
Little Love Affairs and the live album One Fair Summer Evening (both 1988) were slight disappointments, though "I Knew Love" became
Griffith's second
country Top 40 hit.
Disappointed by lack of support from the country music scene,
Griffith moved from Nashville to MCA's pop division in Los Angeles and paired with noted
rock producer Glyn Johns for 1989's
Storms. The album included guest stars Phil Everly,
Albert Lee, and former
Eagle Bernie Leadon and became her best-seller, though it featured no successful singles. A move from
rock to pop -- helped by producers
Rod Argent and Peter Van Hook -- characterized
Late Night Grande Hotel (1991); it was clear by then that
Griffith's move away from Nashville was also compromising her
folk and
country roots.
A move to Elektra in 1992 marked a return to form for
Griffith; her 1993 LP Other Voices, Other Rooms was a tribute to her influences, and several of them -- including
Emmylou Harris,
Chet Atkins, and
John Prine -- made appearances. A compilation release of her best from the MCA years also appeared in 1993. The following year,
Griffith's tenth studio album,
Flyer, continued her dedication to
folk. In March of 1997,
Griffith released Blue Roses From the Moons; Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) followed a year later, trailed in 1999 by Dust Bowl Symphony.
Griffith traveled the world over the next few years, flying to Cambodia and Vietnam in 2000 in order to retrace the steps of her ex-husband, Vietnam War vet Eric Taylor, and visiting Angola and Kosovo the following year. After four years of travel and activist work for organizations like VVAF,
Griffith released a new full-length,
Clock Without Hands. A live album, Winter Marquee, followed in 2002, along with a dual-disc retrospective piece, The Complete MCA Studio Recordings. The following year was a larndmark for Griffiths; she performed at the Grand Ole Opry for the very first time in 2003. Hearts in Mind was released the following year. ~ John Bush
, All Music Guide
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