Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits, starting in 1985 during season 10. Griffith's career spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she termed "folkabilly." She won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for her 1993 recording, Other Voices, Other Rooms. The album features Griffith covering the songs of artists who were her major influences. One of her better-known songs is "From a Distance," which was written and composed by Julie Gold.
Griffith toured with various other artists, including Buddy Holly's band - the Crickets (without Buddy Holly), John Prine, Iris DeMent, Suzy Bogguss, Judy Collins, and the Everly Brothers.Steve Hochman: Country Music's Griffith Has A Few Novel Ideas, latimes.com, October 1, 1986 Griffith recorded duets with many artists, among them Prine, Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Dolores Keane, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz (of Counting Crows), the Chieftains, John Stewart, and Darius Rucker. Griffith referred to her backing band as the Blue Moon Orchestra.
Early life Griffith, the youngest of three siblings, was born in Seguin, Texas, and grew up in Rollingwood, a suburb of Austin, where her family moved shortly after her birth.Maggie, austinnewsstory.com Nanci Griffith Was More Loved Than She Knew , texasmonthly.com, August 16, 2021 Her mother Ruelene was a real estate agent and amateur actress; her father, Marlin Griffith, was a printer, publisher, graphic artist and barbershop quartet singer.Nanci Griffith's death: Grammy-winning singer dies at 68 , globemediawire.com, August 14, 2021Nanci Griffith: Grammy-winning singer dies aged 68, independent.co.uk, August 14, 2021. Griffith began her music career at age 12, singing in a local coffeehouse. When she was a teenager, her father took her to see Townes Van Zandt. At 14, she performed her first professional gig at the Red Lion Cabaret in downtown Austin.Remembering Nanci Griffith, the greatest Austin-raised singer-songwriter ever, statesman.com, August 27, 2021
Griffith attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a degree in education. She taught kindergarten and first grade for a couple of years, before fully focusing on music.
Career
Independent labels (1978–1986)
Her debut album, There's a Light Beyond These Woods, was released in 1978; the cover was designed by her father. Her second album, Poet in My Window, was released in 1982. Both albums were folk-oriented and released on small labels.
Griffith attracted attention of record producer Jim Rooney and recorded her third album, Once in a Very Blue Moon in 1984, in Nashville, with musicians such as Béla Fleck, Mark O'Connor and Lloyd Green. In the same year, she performed on PBS music program Austin City Limits. In the next year, with mostly the same musicians, she recorded the album The Last of the True Believers, which won her first Grammy nomination. The album included the songs "Love at the Five and Dime" and "Goin' Gone" which became hits for Kathy Mattea.
MCA years (1987–1991)
Griffith signed to MCA Records and moved to Nashville; her first album for MCA was the country-oriented Lone Star State of Mind, which included two songs, "Trouble in the Fields", co-written by Griffith, and "From a Distance", written by then unknown songwriter Julie Gold. These songs became popular in Ireland, and both have been covered by many singers. It was followed by Little Love Affairs, featuring "Outbound Plane" which later became a hit for Suzy Bogguss. In 1988, Griffith released One Fair Summer Evening, a live album recorded in Anderson Fair in Houston.
Griffith transferred to the MCA pop division and recorded Storms, which included a song she considered the most important she wrote, "It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go", about conflict in Northern Ireland and racism in the US.
In 1990, Griffith appeared on the Channel 4 program Town & Country with John Prine in a segment entitled "White Pants", where she wore white pants at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee, along with Buddy Mondlock, Barry "Byrd" Burton, and Robert Earl Keen.
Griffith released Late Night Grande Hotel in 1991, and then left MCA Records.
Other Voices, Other Rooms and later works
In 1993, Griffith released the album Other Voices, Other Rooms, which won her first and only Grammy award. The album featured songs by various folk and country songwriters, and a large group of musicians, from Bob Dylan to Odetta. The album was certified gold by RIAA in 2005, more than a decade after it was released.
In 1994, she released the album Flyer, which received another Grammy nomination.
In the same year, Griffith teamed with Jimmy Webb to contribute the song "If These Old Walls Could Speak" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. She survived breast cancer which was diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998. originating from nancigriffith.com Retrieved January 31, 2013
Christine Lavin, a singer and songwriter, remembers the first time she saw Griffith perform: I was struck by how perfect everything was about her singing, her playing, her talking. I realized from the get-go that this was someone who was a complete professional. Obviously she had worked a long time to get to be that good.Deitz, Roger (May/June 1995). "Home at Last". Acoustic Guitar. No. 30. p. 52.
In the late 1990s, Griffith wrote a letter to a number of Texas media, expressing her frustration with recent reviews.
Griffith contributed background vocals on many other recordings.
Griffith performed four songs, "The Day the Earth Stopped Cold", "Gravity of the Situation", "So Strange", and "Hold My Hand" with Hootie & the Blowfish during their MTV Unplugged performance in 1996 in Columbia, South Carolina, to raise awareness for Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
Griffith suffered from severe writer's block after 2004, lasting until the 2009 release of the album The Loving Kind, which contained nine selections that she had written and composed either entirely by herself or as collaborations."Her songs were an extension of her literary interests – she wrote long-form and short-form fiction that sometimes became songs, and vice versa – and when songs wouldn't come (she suffered from songwriter's block between 2004 and 2009), she would use prose to try and keep the words flowing." Obituary: Nanci Griffith, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, by Rob Adams, heraldscotland.com, August 16, 2021
After several months of limited touring in 2011, Griffith's bandmates the Kennedys (Pete & Maura Kennedy) packed up their professional Manhattan recording studio and moved it to Nashville, installing it in Griffith's home. There with her backing group including the Kennedys and Pat McInerney, she co-produced her album Intersection over the summer. The album included several new original songs and was released in April 2012 on Proper Records. Her website lists live performances through 2013.
Awards Griffith won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Other Voices, Other Rooms. She was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 1995.Powerfully Poetic Folk and Country Songwriter Nanci Griffith Has Died at Age 68, austinchronicle.com, August 13, 2021 Griffith was awarded the Kate Wolf Memorial Award by the World Folk Music Association in 1995. In 2008, the Americana Music Association awarded her its Lifetime Americana Trailblazer Award."In 2008, the Americana Music Association gave her a Lifetime Americana Trailblazer Award." in: Nanci Griffith, Singer Who Blended Folk and Country, Dies at 68, nytimes.com, August 13, 2021 Lyle Lovett, who contributed backing vocals to her third album, Once in a Very Blue Moon,"Doster played guitar on Griffith's first album in 1978, and joined her in Nashville for her third, “Once In A Very Blue Moon,” six years later. By then, Griffith had a record deal with folk label Rounder, and a lot of friends and musical collaborators to call on. Her acoustic sound had been amped up a notch, with stalwart Nashville players like Béla Fleck, Roy Huskey Jr. and Mark O’Connor – and a lanky guy she knew from the Texas music scene named Lyle Lovett, singing harmony." in: Remembering Nanci Griffith: ‘She Was Just A Good, Good, Good Songwriter’, by Shelly Brisbin, texasstandard.org, August 16, 2021 had won it before her. In 2010, Griffith received a Lifetime Achievement Award at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.Lifetime Achievement Award for Nanci Griffith, bbc.co.uk, February 1, 2010
Griffith was posthumously inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association's Hall of Fame in February 2022 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin.Remembering Nanci Griffith, the greatest Austin-raised singer-songwriter ever, by Peter Blackstock (Austin American-Statesman), austin360.com, August 27, 2021Lefty Frizzell, Nanci Griffith, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mark James To Join Texas Songwriters Hall Of Fame, musicrow.com, May 28, 2021Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Association announces 2022 Hall of Fame inductees, ntxe-news.com
The Blue Moon Orchestra Griffith called her backing band the Blue Moon Orchestra. With regard to the chosen stage name, she wrote:
The title selection of the Once in a Very Blue Moon album reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1986."Griffith didn't write the title song from Once In A Very Blue Moon, but she made the Pat Alger tune her own – so much so that the band she formed in the late 1980s, and toured with for 20 years, was called the Blue Moon Orchestra." in: "Remembering Nanci Griffith: 'She Was Just A Good, Good, Good Songwriter'", by Shelly Brisbin, texasstandard.org, August 16, 2021"From that point on, Griffith named every band she fronted, big or small, the Blue Moon Orchestra. The clear desire, I assume, was to honor and recall that album's familial spirit. The core of the band stayed with her for the long haul." in: "Music Remembrance: Singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith (1953-2021)", by Daniel Gewertz, artsfuse.org, September 14, 2021 In 1986, Griffith showcased tracks from her Lone Star State of Mind album on The Nashville Network TV show, New Country.
Final members Nanci Griffith – lead vocals, guitar Pat McInerney – drums, percussion Maura Kennedy – vocals, guitar Pete Kennedy – guitar, vocals
Previous members James Hooker – piano, B-3, keyboards, vocals Byrd Burton – guitar Frank Christian – guitar Philip Donnelly – guitar Danny Flowers – guitar Clive Gregson – guitar, vocals Thomm Jutz – guitar, vocals Doug Lancio – electric guitar Lee Satterfield – vocals, rhythm guitar, mandolin Denny Bixby – bass, harmony vocals Ron De La Vega – bass, cello Le Ann Etheridge – vocals, bass guitar, rhythm guitar Pete Gordon – bass Pete Gorisch – bass, cello Danny Milliner – bass J. T. Thomas – bass, vocals Fran Breen – drums Liam Genockey – drums Steve Smith – drums
Guest backing vocalists Emmylou Harris Iris DeMent Lyle Lovett Denice Franke"From those early Kerrville campfires to her angelic harmonizing with Nanci Griffith and that classic unreleased tape with Mickie Merkens...to crowded folk venues from Texas to Switzerland, Denice Franke's music has always moved me. She's a deeply talented writer, singer, and guitarist. One of Texas' finest." --- Tom Russell | Source: denicefranke.com
Personal life Griffith's high-school boyfriend, John, died in a motorcycle accident shortly after taking her to the senior prom. He inspired many of her later songs. She was married to singer-songwriter Eric Taylor from 1976 to 1982. In the early 1990s, she was engaged to singer-songwriter Tom Kimmel.
Griffith was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998. Dupuytren's contracture led to her losing flexibility in her fingers, which made playing the guitar difficult.