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, 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] Her mother Ruelene was a real estate agent and amateur actress; her father, Marlin Griffith, was a graphic artist and barbershop quartet singer.[6][7] Griffith began her music career at age 12, singing in a local coffeehouse.[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] Her debut album, There’s a Light Beyond These Woods, was released in 1978, with a cover designed by her father.
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]
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.
The title selection of the Once in a Very Blue Moon album reached number 85 on the BillboardHot Country Songs chart in 1986.[25][26] In 1986, Nanci Griffith showcased tracks from her 'Lone Star State Of Mind' album on The Nashville Network TV show, 'New Country'.
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 exact cause of death was not reported[29][10] but her management company attributed it to natural causes.[30]
^ abPeople magazine August 30th, 2021 issue Page 24
^"Biography". Archived from the original on January 13, 2007. Retrieved January 13, 2007. originating from nancigriffith.com Retrieved January 31, 2013
^"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." in: Obituary: Nanci Griffith, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, by Rob Adams, heraldscotland.com, August 16th, 2021
^Noble, Richard E. (2009). Number No. 1 : the story of the original Highwaymen. Denver: Outskirts Press. pp. 265–267. ISBN9781432738099. OCLC426388468.
^"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
^"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
^"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
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