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Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter.[1] She appeared many times on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985 (season 10). In 1994 she won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.[2]

Nanci Griffith
Griffith performing in 2004
Background information
Birth name	Nanci Caroline Griffith
Born	(1953-07-06)July 6, 1953 Seguin, Texas, U.S.
Died	August 13, 2021(2021-08-13) (aged 68) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Country, Country Folk, Americana, Neotraditional Country
Instrument(s)	Vocals, acoustic guitar
Years active	1977–2021
Labels	B.F. Deal, Featherbed, Philo, MCA, Elektra, Rounder, New Door
Website	nancigriffith.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 February 2021)

Griffith toured with various other artists, including Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets; John Prine; Iris DeMent; Suzy Bogguss; Judy Collins and The Everly Brothers.[3] Griffith recorded duets with many artists, among them Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, John Prine, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Dolores Keane, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz (singer of Counting Crows), the Chieftains, John Stewart; and Darius Rucker (lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish). Griffith had a backing band which she referred to as the Blue Moon Orchestra.

Early life and career

Nanci Griffith, the youngest of three siblings, was born in Seguin, Texas, but raised in Austin, the place her family moved to shortly after her birth.[4][5] Nanci's mother Ruelene was a real estate agent and amateur actress, her father, Marlin Griffith, was a graphic artist and barbershop quartet singer.[6][7] Nanci Griffith began her career as a singer performing in a local coffeehouse, aged 12.[6] Her father took her to see Townes Van Zandt as a teenager. At the age of 14, she did her first professional gig at the Red Lion Cabaret in downtown Austin.[8] Nanci's debut album, There’s a Light Beyond These Woods, was released in 1978, with a cover designed by her father.

Her career spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she termed "folkabilly."[1] Griffith won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for her 1993 recording, Other Voices, Other Rooms.[9] This 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, although Bette Midler's version achieved greater commercial success.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, other artists have occasionally achieved greater success than Griffith herself with songs that she wrote or co-wrote. For example, Kathy Mattea had a country music top five hit with a 1986 cover of Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime"[10]^{[citation needed]} and Suzy Bogguss had one of her largest hits with Griffith's and Tom Russell's "Outbound Plane".[10]^{[citation needed]}

In 1994, Griffith teamed up 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. Griffith was a survivor of breast cancer which was diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998.[11][12]

Singer-songwriter Christine Lavin 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.[13]

Griffith toured with various other artists, including Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets; John Prine; Iris DeMent; Suzy Bogguss; and Judy Collins. Griffith recorded duets with many artists, among them Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, John Prine, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Dolores Keane, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz (singer of Counting Crows), the Chieftains, musician John Stewart; and Darius Rucker (lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish). She also contributed background vocals on many other recordings.[14]

Griffith suffered from severe writer's block after 2004, lasting until the 2009 release of her The Loving Kind album, which contained nine selections that she had written and composed either entirely by herself or as collaborations.[15]

After several months of limited touring in 2011, Griffith's bandmates the Kennedys (Pete & Maura Kennedy) packed up their professional Manhattan recording studio and relocated it to Nashville, where they installed it in Griffith's home. At this location, with her backing group, including Pete & Maura Kennedy and Pat McInerney, she co-produced her album Intersection over the course of the summer. The album included several new original songs and was released in April 2012 on Proper Records.[16]

Awards

Griffith won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Other Voices, Other Rooms. She was inducted into Austin Music Hall of Fame in 1995.[17] Griffith was awarded the Kate Wolf Memorial Award by the World Folk Music Association in 1995.[18] In 2008, the Americana Music Association awarded her its Lifetime Americana Trailblazer Award.[19] Lyle Lovett, who contributed backing vocals to her third album, Once in a Very Blue Moon,[20] had won it before her. In 2010, Griffith received a Lifetime Achievement Award at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.[21]

Griffith was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association's Hall of Fame in February 2022 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin.[22][23][24]

The Blue Moon Orchestra

Griffith referred to her backing band as the Blue Moon Orchestra. With regard to the chosen stage name, she wrote:

During the Christmas holidays of 1986 I organized a band of musicians to work this road of touring and to pass effortlessly through mine fields of studio sessions. They chose their name, the Blue Moon Orchestra, from my third album, Once In A Very Blue Moon. Some of them I had recorded and toured with prior to 1986: and some simply wandered into the Blue Moon Orchestra through this revolving open door of the road.

— Nanci Griffith in 1997

The title selection of the Once in a Very Blue Moon album reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1986.[25][26]

Current members

• Pat McInerney – percussion
• Maura Kennedy – vocals, guitar
• Pete Kennedy – guitar, vocals

Previous members

• Nanci Griffith – lead vocals, guitar
• James Hooker – piano, B-3, keyboards, vocals
• Philip Donnelly – guitar
• Clive Gregson – guitar, vocals
• Doug Lancio – electric guitar
• Thomm Jutz – guitar, vocals
• Byrd Burton – guitar
• Frank Christian – guitar
• Ron De La Vega – bass, cello
• Pete Gorisch – bass, cello
• J. T. Thomas – bass, vocals
• Denny Bixby – bass
• Pete Gordon – bass
• Le Ann Etheridge – vocals, bass guitar, rhythm guitar
• Lee Satterfield – vocals, rhythm guitar, mandolin
• Fran Breen – drums
• Steve Smith – drums
• Liam Genocky - drums

Guest backing vocalists

• Emmylou Harris
• Iris DeMent
• Lyle Lovett
• Denice Franke[27]

Personal life

Griffith's high school boyfriend, John, died in a motorcycle accident after taking her to the senior prom, and subsequently inspired many of her songs.[5] She was married to singer-songwriter Eric Taylor from 1976 to 1982. In the early 1990s, she was engaged to singer-songwriter Tom Kimmel.[28]

Death

Griffith died in Nashville on August 13, 2021, at the age of 68. The cause of death was not reported.[29][10][30]

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Peak chart positions			Label
		US Country [31]	US [32]	UK [33]
1978	There's a Light Beyond These Woods	—	—	—	B.F. Deal
1982	Poet in My Window	—	—	—	Featherbed
1984	Once in a Very Blue Moon	—	—	—	Philo
1986	The Last of the True Believers	—	—	—
1987	Lone Star State of Mind	23	—	—	MCA
1988	Little Love Affairs	27	—	78
1989	Storms	42	99	38
1991	Late Night Grande Hotel	—	185	40
1993	Other Voices, Other Rooms	—	54	18	Elektra
1994	Flyer	—	48	20
1997	Blue Roses from the Moons	—	119	64
1998	Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful)	—	85	—
1999	The Dust Bowl Symphony	—	—	—
2001	Clock Without Hands	—	149	61
2004	Hearts in Mind	—	—	—	New Door
2006	Ruby's Torch	—	—	—	Rounder
2009	The Loving Kind	—	—	—
2012	Intersection	—	—	—	Hell No
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Live albums

Year	Album	Peak chart positions			Label
		US Country [31]	US [32]	UK [33]
1988	One Fair Summer Evening	43	—	—	MCA
2002	Winter Marquee	45	—	—	Rounder
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Compilation albums

Year	Album	Peak positions	Label
		UK[33]
1993	The MCA Years: A Retrospective	—	MCA
	The Best of Nanci Griffith	27
1997	Country Gold	—
2000	Wings to Fly and a Place To Be: An Introduction to Nanci Griffith	—
2001	20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Nanci Griffith	—
2002	From a Distance: The Very Best of Nanci Griffith	—
2003	The Complete MCA Studio Recordings	—
2015	Ghost in the Music	---	VOX ROX
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Album
		US Country [34]	CAN Country [35]	Irish Singles Chart [36]
1986	"Once in a Very Blue Moon"	85	—	—	Once in a Very Blue Moon
1987	"Lone Star State of Mind"	36	—	—	Lone Star State of Mind
	"Trouble in the Fields"	57	43	—
	"Cold Hearts/Closed Minds"	64	—	—
	"Never Mind"	58	—	—	Little Love Affairs
1988	"From a Distance"	—	—	9	Lone Star State of Mind
	"I Knew Love"	37	—	20	Little Love Affairs
	"Anyone Can Be Somebody's Fool"	64	—	—
1989	"It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go"	—	—	—	Storms
	"I Don't Wanna Talk About Love"	—	—	—
1991	"Late Night Grande Hotel"	—	—	—	Late Night Grande Hotel
1993	"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness"	—	—	—	Other Voices, Other Rooms
1994	"This Heart"	—	—	—	Flyer
1995	"Well...All Right" (with the Crickets)	—	87	—	Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly)
1997	"Maybe Tomorrow"	—	—	—	Blue Roses from the Moons
	"Gulf Coast Highway"	—	—	—
1999	"These Days in an Open Book"	—	—	—	The Dust Bowl Symphony
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Videography

• Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration Sony VHS (1993)^{[citation needed]}
• Other Voices, Other Rooms Elektra Video VHS (1993)^{[citation needed]}
• Winter Marquee Rounder/Universal DVD, Widescreen, (2002)^{[citation needed]}
• One Fair Summer Evening...Plus! Universal Music & VI DVD, Fullscreen, (2005)^{[citation needed]}

Music videos

Year	Video	Director
1988	"I Knew Love"	Michael Salomon
1989	"It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go"[37]	Willy Smax
1991	"Late Night Grande Hotel"[38]	Sophie Muller
1993	"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" (with John Prine)[39]	Rocky Schenck
1994	"This Heart"
1996	"Well...All Right" (with the Crickets)

See also

• Music of Austin

References

External links

• Nanci Griffith official site (archived final version 2021-02-25)
• Comprehensive Nanci Griffith discography
• Chart History Nanci Griffith, Billboard 200
• Interview with Nanci Griffith, PopMatters, 2012.
• The Popdose Guide to Nanci Griffith, popdose.com, January 8, 2008
• Roger Deitz: Remembering Singer-Songwriter Nanci Griffith (1953–2021), Acousticguitar.com
• Nanci Griffith discography at Discogs
• Nanci Griffith at IMDb

На других языках

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- [en] Nanci Griffith

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[ru] Гриффит, Нэнси

Нэнси Гриффит (англ. Nanci Griffith; 6 июля 1953, Сегин, Техас, США — 13 августа 2021[1]) — американская певица, автор-исполнитель, сочетающая в своём творчестве элементы кантри, фолка и рок-музыки.

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