"It was so lovely to be included," says Griffith in her high, clear, prairie-girl voice. "Buddy Holly is such a hero of mine. I always wanted to grow up and be a Cricket. Nobody played Stratocaster like Buddy or Sonny (Curtis). They had just enough west Texas dirt underneath their fingernails. There was something about the way they played that made it special."
Since Griffith began recording nearly two decades ago, she has knit together strands of folk, pop and country in her poetic songs. Griffith has recorded with an eclectic group of mates such as Lyle Lovett, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton of U2 and Irish folk legends the Chieftains. In 1993, Other Voices, Other Rooms (named for Truman Capote’s first novel) gained Griffith her first Grammy award, for Best Contemporary Folk Performance. She followed with Flyer in 1995.
"Flyer was a departure in terms of writing," she explains, "but it happened very naturally. Instead of writing fiction, I came up with a whole album of up-close and personal Nanci Griffith. I spent two years putting it together. After I had done the cover album, I was inspired by all these great songwriters. They challenged me and my writing came out very autobiographical." Drenched with gorgeous melodies, buoyed by burnished folk-pop arrangements, the 15 songs on Flyer resonate with Griffith’s real-life stories of love found and lost, of hard realizations and stubborn hope. Parts of her 12th album focus on the psychic dislocation of the globetrotting life.
"I was never in one place long enough to get close to anyone," she says of her years of touring. "I’d like to not be on the road so much, but (laughing), I’m not sure I’m even capable of it."
Divorced in 1982 from Nashville-musician Eric Taylor, after a six-year marriage, she lives in a century-old farmhouse in Franklin, Tennessee with her three cats. Until last fall, she had a loft apartment in downtown Dublin, where she is a wildly popular member of the burgeoning Irish folk-country scene.
"Dublin’s the one city that was everything I thought it would be from reading Joyce," insists Griffith, whose lineage is Scotch-Welsh. "It’s a beautiful place. I was there 10 years. They have wonderful singers over there and I’ve been blessed to have people like Mary Black and her sister Frances record my music. We do better there than we do here. I sold out 10 nights at the National Concert Hall three years ago. But I have to say the best audience I’ve ever seen had to be in Belfast. There was so much energy, love and appreciation coming together." Gentle and soothing, Griffith’s songs conjure up a series of four-minute worlds that poignantly point out brushes with blind fate, short-lived love and life’s striking realities.
The daughter of a printer and an amateur actress, she was born in Lubbock, Texas, and was brought up in the music mecca of Austin. Dyslexia stymied grade-schooler Nanci’s attempts at learning piano; she gravitated to playing guitar. She practiced her skills by tuning in every Saturday morning to the PBS program Folk Guitar, taught by Laura Weber.
"My dad was into folk music, so I heard it all my life," she recalls. "He was also into barbershop quartet music. My mom, on the other hand, was totally into Brubeck and jazz, so I got a great cross section of music."
"I used to watch Folk Guitar religiously. It was a great show and several other people I know in the business learned to play the same way." Griffith began her career at age 14, when her "West Texas liberal" parents chaperoned her on the Austin club circuit. "I was really awful and I knew it," she remembers with a smile. "But I also had the opportunity to be exposed to some left-of-center music I never would have heard." During her teenage years she also imitated the style and sound of rockabilly, in particular Buddy Holly. "I loved playing folk guitar," says the wide-eyed Griffith, "but I always had this pull toward the sound of Buddy and Sonny Curtis, so my guitar style developed a lot like them."
"I’ve known Sonny for years and he’s always been one of my favorite songwriters and heroes beyond compare. He’s the man that wrote I Fought The Law, Walk Right Back and the theme for the Mary Tyler Moore television program. It was a real honor to work with Sonny and the Crickets."
Holly’s 1958 recording of Well... All Right, certainly anticipated the folk-rock sound, via his acoustic guitar and urgent, but softly sung vocals, Joe Mauldin’s upright bass and Jerry Allison lightly tippling a cymbal. Giving those lyrics her own folkabilly stamp, Griffith’s effervescent vocals found a perfect backing with Cricket’s Allison on percussion and Curtis on acoustic guitar.
"Because I’ve always been an alternative artist, I’ve always been allowed to do pretty much what I wanted musically," she explains. "I’ve never been pressured to do any particular thing. I don’t really have a category."
"Radio came about by accident. When I was first signed, a radio promoter advised me against putting out a single, because he thought country music would kill Nanci Griffith. I think it was probably true at that time, then there was a turn where folks like Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam and myself made some inroads on other radio formats. I’m very glad it’s turned out the way it has. Country music is not where I ever wanted to be."
Griffith signed with MCA/Nashville in 1986, working with acclaimed producer Tony Brown. Her major label debut, Lone Star State of Mind, propelled her to superstar status in Ireland and England, going platinum in short order. Her take on her friend Julie Gold’s From A Distance became a number one hit in Ireland five years before Bette Midler’s version. Little Love Affairs followed in 1988, as did One Fair Summer Evening, a live album that served as a homecoming for Griffith: it was recorded at the Anderson Fair in Houston, Texas, a tiny club where she honed her talents as a teenager.
This year dawned as her most challenging to date with a myriad of projects. In April she appeared on an MTV Unplugged performance of Hootie and the Blowfish’s new release playing rhythm guitar and singing backup. Griffith is recording a Vic Chestnut song for an upcoming Sweet Relief album. In May, her music was featured in a symphony production in Nashville along with a ballet troupe. In June she hit the studios to record her new album that will feature the Crickets and her own Blue Moon Orchestra who are celebrating their 10th anniversary. In July she did a limited concert tour with the Chieftains.
"I didn’t plan any of this," she confesses. "It just all kind of happens when it happens. What I like about this year is it’s so completely different. It really gives me the opportunity to spread my wings."