Nanci Griffith Tickets

About Nanci Griffith

b. 6 July 1953, Seguin, Texas, USA. This singer-songwriter brilliantly straddles the boundary between folk and country music, with occasional nods to the mainstream rock audience. Her mother was an amateur actress and her father a member of a barbershop quartet. They passed on their interest in performance to Nanci, and although she majored in education at the University of Texas, she eventually chose a career in music in 1977, by which time she had been performing in public for 10 years. In 1978 her first album, There's A Light Beyond These Woods, was released by a local company, BF Deal Records. Recorded live in a studio in Austin, it featured mainly her own compositions, along with "Dollar Matinee", written by her erstwhile husband Eric Taylor. The most notable song on the album was the title track, and as a souvenir of her folk act of the time, the album was adequate. In 1982, Poet In My Window was released by another local label, Featherbed Records; like its predecessor, this album was re-released in 1986 by nationally distributed Philo/Rounder Records. It displayed a pleasing maturity in composition, the only song not written by Griffith herself being "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown", penned by Jimmie Gilmore and John Reed (once again, Eric Taylor was involved as associate producer/bass player), while the barbershop quartet in which her father, Marlin Griffith, sang provided harmony vocals on "Wheels".

By 1984, Griffith had met Jim Rooney, who produced her third album, Once In A Very Blue Moon, released in 1985 by Philo/Rounder. This album featured such notable backing musicians as lead guitarist Phillip Donnelly, banjo wizard Bela Fleck, Lloyd Green and Mark O'Connor. It was recorded at Jack Clement's Nashville studio. As well as more of her own songs, the album included her version of Lyle Lovett's "If I Was The Woman You Wanted", Richard Dobson's "Ballad Of Robin Wintersmith' and the superb title track written by Pat Alger - Griffith named the backing band she formed in 1986 the Blue Moon Orchestra. Following on the heels of this artistic triumph came 1986"s Last Of The True Believers. Released by Philo/Rounder, the album had a similar feel to its predecessor, and one that set it apart from run-of-the-mill albums by singer-songwriters. It included two songs that would later achieve US country chart celebrity as covered by Kathy Mattea, Griffith's own "Love At The Five And Dime" and Alger's "Goin' Gone", as well as several other tracks that would become Griffith classics, including the title track, "The Wing And The Wheel" (which inspired Griffith's music publishing company), "More Than A Whisper" and "Lookin' For The Time (Working Girl)", plus the fine Tom Russell song "St. Olav's Gate". The album became Griffith's first to be released in the UK when it was licensed by Demon Records.