{"id":8895,"date":"2022-03-04T09:01:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T09:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=8895"},"modified":"2022-03-04T09:03:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T09:03:42","slug":"the-concluding-part-5-of-sidetracks-and-detours-inaugural-annual-heres-to-the-ladies-in-print-festival-nanci-griffith-a-poetess-among-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/the-concluding-part-5-of-sidetracks-and-detours-inaugural-annual-heres-to-the-ladies-in-print-festival-nanci-griffith-a-poetess-among-cowboys\/","title":{"rendered":"The concluding part (5) of Sidetracks And Detours\u00b4 inaugural, annual Here\u00b4s To The Ladies in-print festival: NANCI GRIFFITH: A Poetess Among Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The concluding part (5) of Sidetracks And Detours\u00b4 inaugural, annual Here\u00b4s To The Ladies in-print festival:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NANCI GRIFFITH: A <\/strong>Poetess Among Cowboys<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Warwick is reminded of her greatness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4She left behind some wonderful albums and songs\u2014mostly from the first half of her career\u2014and she was one of the more popular folk singers of her generation. But she was never able to push that popularity beyond the small worlds of Texas, Ireland and folk music.\u00b4<\/em> asserted Geoffrey Himes in a remembrance of Nanci Griffith, who had recently been taken from us at the age of only 68.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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nanci \u00b4Flash back to 1986. Tony Brown, who\u2019d been a pianist for Elvis Presley and Emmylou Harris, was installed as president of MCA Nashville. With that background, he was inevitably dissatisfied with the current state of country music and determined to shake things up. He signed three of the best young singer\/songwriters from Texas\u2014Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith (left)<\/strong>\u2014and produced their first mainstream-country albums. That same year Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and Marty Stuart also released their first major-label albums, and these six acts became known as \u201cThe Class of 1986.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travis, Yoakam and Stuart went on to have successful country careers, but Brown\u2019s three Texan misfits didn\u2019t. Earle had two top-10 country singles off his debut album, and Lovett had three top-20 hits. But Earle was too ornery and Lovett too eccentric to be comfortable at country radio, and they soon went their own way to become successful Americana artists before the term even existed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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photo 2 Griffith was neither ornery nor eccentric, but she never had a single climb higher than #36. Mary Chapin Carpenter, another literary folk singer crossing over into country, made her debut in 1987, and would score 18 top-20 hits\u2014and four top-twos\u2014from her first six albums. Kathy Mattea (right)<\/strong> launched her string of 16 top-10 country singles with her own version of Griffith\u2019s composition, \u201cDown at the Five and Dime,\u201d in 1986.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did it work for Carpenter and Mattea, but not for Griffith? Well, the first two projected a frankness and swagger in their performances that country audiences crave. Those qualities never came naturally to Griffith. Connected to this was the smallness and purity of Griffith\u2019s soprano, qualities better suited to the airy fables of folk than to the earthy lusts and laments of country. She eventually pulled back into her comfort zone of exquisitely crafted cabaret-folk songs delivered with an intimate understatement so every word could be savoured.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And many times, the songs deserved such scrutiny. There\u2019s A Light Beyond These Woods, the title song from her 1978 debut album on a tiny Texas label, is a wonderful evocation of a friendship between two 10-year-old girls. After an all-night gabfest, the way the rising sun hides behind the trees and shines through them embodies the future beyond their grasp. Even when the song jumps forward to the high school senior prom and to an adulthood where one is a traveling singer and the other a mother and wife, there\u2019s still something shining beyond the woods.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same year the 25-year-old singer-guitarist won the New Folk Award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, which allowed her to stand out in a crowded field of Texas singer\/songwriters, all trying to follow in the footsteps of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Mickey Newbury. One of those aspirants was the gifted Eric Taylor, who was married to Griffith from 1976 to 1982. She continued to perform his songs at her shows even after they separated, often introducing their author as \u201cthe only singer\/songwriter I\u2019ve known biblically.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time she moved to Nashville in 1985 in search of greater visibility, Griffith had already released four small-label albums, much admired within the insular folk world, little noticed without. The first time I saw her was at Northern Virginia\u2019s Barns of Wolf Trap a week into January of 1986. Her straight, brown hair hung nearly to the waist of a white sweatshirt bearing a rhinestone pin of Texas; beneath her black skirt, her white ankle socks were turned down neatly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accompanied only by acoustic guitarist Frank Christian, she began the show with Lone Star State of Mind, the title track and first single off her soon-to-be-released first MCA album. This bouncy, twangy ode to her native state was written by Nashville\u2019s Pat Alger and Fred Koller. She followed it with the traditional folk song, The Banks of the Pontchartrain. So right off the bat, she was acknowledging the nations of country and folk\u2014and the no man\u2019s land between, where she was camped.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the show, she paid tribute to Tennessee Williams and Rosalie Sorrels, as if the famous playwright and cult-figure singer\/songwriter were equals; she also nodded to country songwriter Lynn Anderson and to the friend who inspired There\u2019s a Light Beyond These Woods. \u201cMary Margaret grew up with me in Austin,\u201d she explained. She added, approvingly, \u201cRecently she\u2019s lost 30 pounds, divorced one rancher husband, married another 12 years younger than her and moved to Denver.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sang songs by Bill Staines, Tom Russell and Kate Wolf, but the evening\u2019s best songs were her own. They were literate without being artsy, romantic without being sentimental and melodic without being precious. She could evoke a Saturday-night dancehall on Fly by Night and the desperation of a woman fleeing her husband in a Ford Econoline.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of all was Trouble in These Fields, which described the plight of the nation\u2019s farmers in lines such as these: \u201cWhen the bankers swarm like locusts out there turning away our yield \/ the trains roll by our silos, silver in the rain \/ They leave our pockets full of nothing \/ but our dreams and the golden grain.\u201d For the encore, she sang \u201cLove at the Five and Dime,\u201d already a #3 hit for Kathy Mattea.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country stardom that seemed to be in store for Griffith, though, never materialized. Brown co-produced three albums with her and allowed her to make two more MCA albums with British producers: the Rolling Stones engineer Glyn Johns (Storms) and Zombies keyboardist Rod Argent (Late Night Grande Hotel). Nothing worked. Brown let her go to Elektra, where she teamed up with esteemed folk producer Jim Rooney to create the Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms in 1993. She paid tribute to her favourite songwriters, either by singing their songs or inviting them to perform with her. Bob Dylan and John Prine served both roles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was followed a year later by The Flyer, which included musicians from R.E.M., U2, Dire Straits and Counting Crows. It gave her a new, non-country, non-folk sound and also inspired her best crop of compositions in six years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em><\/strong>After that, though, she seemed to lose her way. She tried gimmicks to jumpstart her creativity\u2014another tribute record, an album with the London Symphony, a duet with Hootie and the Blowfish, (right)<\/strong> loved by all our Friends) a collection of torch ballads\u2014but nothing clicked. She survived two cancer episodes and a painful skin disease. She mailed an angry letter to several Texas newspapers and magazines, complaining about their treatment of her\u2014an episode that delighted her critics and saddened her supporters.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As her prominence dwindled in the U.S., it remained strong in England and especially Ireland. She was the first to record the secular hymn, \u201cFrom a Distance,\u201d written by Julie Gold (right)<\/strong> and while Bette Midler had the big hit with it in America, Griffith had the top-10 pop hit in Ireland. There was something about Griffith\u2019s bell-tone voice and stoic style of storytelling that connected to Celtic folk music. She released her album Hearts in Mind in Ireland and England in 2004, four months before its 2005 U.S. release. She even sang on two different albums by The Chieftains.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she remained inalterably rooted in Texas. Her most covered composition and her song most likely to be remembered is \u201cGulf Coast Highway,\u201d her tribute to the old Route 90, which hugs the coast from Mississippi into Texas. Only in the latter state, though, do the blue-bonnets blossom along the road every springtime, and that\u2019s what keeps the older couple in the song going from year to year. And when they die, Griffith sings over her lilting Texas-Celtic melody, they\u2019ll \u201cfly away to heaven, come some sweet blue-bonnet spring.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This concludes our week long Sidetracks And Detours Here\u00b4s To The Ladies in-print Festival 2022. singer-writer Diane Warren, legendary country star Emmylou Harris, dynasty member Martha Wainwright, film actress and star Minnie Driver have all featured here this week. Now, today, we have closed the festival with a reminder of the excellent body of work of the late nanci Griffith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bluegrass logo We\u00b4ve enjoyed your company and thanks for sharing the beer. There\u00b4ll be another Sidetracks And Detours along shortly, because in week commencing Monday 21st<\/sup> March we will be running the week long \u00b4Sidetracks And Detours Through The Blugrass\u00b4 Festival. We will be checking out what makes the best bluegrass festivals the best, and examining why bluegrass might be better called The Sound of History. We will also have a look at what kind of band line-ups are instrumental to bluegrass and conducting an interviedw with a man who styles himself as the fourth best banjo player in Rochdale. We will close the festival by pointing signposts in the direction of the new bluegrass talent coming over the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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please note logo <\/strong>The primary source for this article was  written by Mark Beaumont for The Independent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our occasional re-postings Sidetracks And Detours are confident that we are not only sharing with our readers excellent articles written by experts but are also pointing to informed and informative sites readers will re-visit time and again. Of course, we feel sure our readers will also return to our daily not-for-profit blog knowing that we seek to provide core original material whilst sometimes spotlighting the best pieces from elsewhere, as we engage with genres and practitioners along all the sidetracks & detours we take.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was collated by Norman Warwick, a weekly columnist with Lanzarote Information and owner and editor of this daily blog at Sidetracks And Detours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman has also been a long serving broadcaster, co-presenting the weekly all across the arts programme on Crescent Community Radio for many years with Steve Bewick, and his own show on Sherwood Community Radio. He has been a regular guest on BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Four.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a published author and poet Norman was a founder member of Lendanear Music, with Colin Lever and Just Poets with Pam McKee, Touchstones Creative Writing Group (for which he was creative writing facilitator for a number of years) with Val Chadwick and all across the arts with Robin Parker.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Monday to Friday,<\/strong> you will find a daily post here at Sidetracks And Detours and, should you be looking for good reading, over the weekend you can visit our massive but easy to navigate archives of over 500 articles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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e mail logo The purpose of this daily not-for-profit blog is to deliver news, previews, interviews and reviews from all across the arts to die-hard fans and non- traditional audiences around the world. We are therefore always delighted to receive your own articles here at Sidetracks And Detours. So if you have a favourite artist, event, or venue that you would like to tell us more about just drop a Word document attachment to me at <\/strong>normanwarwick55@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a> with a couple of appropriate photographs in a zip folder if you wish. Beiung a not-for-profit organisation we unfortunately cannot pay you but we will always fully attribute any pieces we publish. You therefore might also. like to include a brief autobiography and photograph of yourself<\/strong> in your submission. We look forward to hearing from you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sidetracks And Detours is seeking to join the synergy of organisations that support the arts of whatever genre. We are therefore grateful to all those share information to reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

correspondents                                Michael Higgins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Steve Bewick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Gary Heywood Everett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Steve Cooke<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Susana Fondon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Graham Marshall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Peter Pearson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hot Biscuits Jazz Radio                      www.fc-radio.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AllMusic  <\/strong><\/a>                                          <\/strong>https:\/\/www.allmusic.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

feedspot                                              https:\/\/www.feedspot.com\/?_src=folder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazz In Reading                                  https:\/\/www.jazzinreading.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazziz                                                 https:\/\/www.jazziz.com
<\/a>Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues                https:\/\/rvjazzandblues.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Adams                                         Music That\u00b4s Going Places<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lanzarote Information                        https:\/\/lanzaroteinformation.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all across the arts                                 www.allacrossthearts.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rochdale Music Society                     rochdalemusicsociety.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lendanear                                           www.lendanearmusic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agenda Cultura Lanzarote<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry Yaskiel \u2013 writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lanzarote Art Gallery                  https:\/\/lanzaroteartgallery.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodreads                                        https:\/\/www.goodreads<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

groundup music                                  HOME | GroundUP Music<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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songfacts                                           en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/SongFacts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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