NANCI GRIFFITH

Nanci Griffith Was More Loved Than She Knew

Fans of the Seguin-born singer-songwriter, who died on Friday, are as uncategorizable as the artist they adored.

By Jason Cohen

Texas Monthly, August 16, 2021

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Best known for such Texas folk-country classics as “Last of the True Believers,” “Love at the Five and Dime,” and “Lone Star State of Mind,” as well as her near-definitive versions of Julie Gold’s “From a Distance,” Townes Van Zandt’s “Tecumseh Valley,” and John Prine’s “Speed the Sound of Loneliness” (in a duet with Prine himself), Griffith’s music transcended genre, generations, and her home state. Seguin-born and Austin-raised, she may have had even more fans outside of Texas, whether in Nashville, Ireland, New York, or Australia … and she introduced those fans to other Texas artists….Calling attention to other songwriters eventually became a near full-time pursuit for Griffith. Her 1993 all-covers album Other Voices, Other Rooms won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album, and also spawned a sequel, 1998’s Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful), with a list of songwriters and collaborators that included Van Zandt, Walker, Lovett, Prine, Clark, Richard Thompson, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Odetta, and many others. In between, 1994’s Flyer featured guest appearances from members of R.E.M., U2, and Counting Crows, while on 1997’s Blues Roses on the Moon she recut her song “Gulf Coast Highway” with Hootie and the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker, who was then still years away from his own solo country music career. Griffith’s own songs were also hits for Kathy Mattea (“Love at the Five and Dime”) and Suzy Bogguss (“Outbound Plane,” written with Tom Russell). 

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‍“Nanci Griffith and I stopped by a College Station, Texas, radio station in the fall of 1978 where I snapped this shot of her through the control-room glass. She always encouraged me. My career and life wouldn’t be the same without her.”

Lyle Lovett

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Texas Heritage Songwriters HoF Returns to Honor Lefty, Lightnin’, Griffith, and James

By Doug Freeman,

Austin Chronicle,  FEB. 14, 2022

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Robert Earl Keen delivered the most poignant moment of the show, paying tribute to his longtime friend Nanci Griffith with a personal story of a tour through Ireland together. “She was good to me when I wasn’t any good,” quipped the songwriter. Keen,…offered four songs in tribute, clearly moved by the weight of the moment as he offered “The Wing and the Wheel.”

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