Press and Reviews

Wearing Her Heart On Her Sleeve

05/01/2005

LINK: http://www.sundayherald.com/print49387 Wearing her heart on her sleeve Live roots By Sue Wilson Sunday Herald - 01 May 2005 Doe-eyed and doll-tiny, Nanci Griffith remains strikingly girlish for a woman of 51. Not in a naff, mutton-dressed-as-lamb sense, but in the combination of her uncynical idealism – channelled into such anti-war causes as the Campaign For A Landmine-Free World – and a broad strain of unapologetic whimsy in her make-up. Some of the con versational interludes during this show, for instance, touched on her recent visits to Vietnam, for the commemorations marking 30 years since the war’s end – experiences that prompted several songs on her new album, Hearts In Mind, dedicated to “the memory of every soldier and every civilian lost to the horrors of war”. We also learned, however, that’s she’s a big EastEnders fan. Anytime she’s over here, she confided in her sweet Texan drawl, she catches up on events in Albert Square, dreaming of a cameo that would see her smoking fags with Dot in the Queen Vic, and having an affair with Alfie. Despite this sole Scottish date being the last of a 10-day UK tour, Griffith sounded as fresh as if it had been opening night. Her warm, relaxed demeanour might have had something to do with the success of Hearts In Mind, her first release in four years and a hot radio favourite on these shores. Back home, it’s spent seven weeks at number one. That same ageless, eloquent sweetness – a hallmark of Griffith’s country-folk sound since her first recordings more than 25 years ago – was at work among the new songs, especially in Beautiful, a life-affirming tribute to her octogenarian, jazz-loving stepfather. In Love Conquers All (“for Alfie”), a quietly heartfelt expression of faith in the title was offset by a poignant edge of astringency, while Heart Of Indochine combined a lyrical meditation on the peace now prevailing in Vietnam with a succession of piercing questions about the decades preceding it. Peppered with Griffith’s signature close-up visual vignettes, such songs highlighted the steely astuteness that has long been the flipside to her wider-eyed qualities. This last characteristic has also enriched her singing over the years, broadening out her bell-like soprano to encompass resonant lower depths, ragged edges, and reserves of sheer ballsy power . As well as belting it out in big back-catalogue numbers like The Flyer and Listen To The Radio, Griffith showed her rockabilly roots in another Hearts In Mind track, the honky-tonk-fuelled Last Train Home, apparently written in wry sympathy during a rash of break-ups among her ex-lovers. In a similar vein, her choice of encore was a souped-up, take-no-prisoners thrash through the Rolling Stones’ No Expectations. Griffith’s band, the Blue Moon Orch-estra, has evolved into a semi-movable feast, with James Hooker on piano and keyboards, and drummer Pat McInerny as long-time anchormen. Completing the pared-down line-up were LeAnn Etheridge on bass and Anglo roots-rock maverick Clive Gregson on electric guitar – he being the author of the catchily sardonic I Love This Town, which has been all over the radio lately. However streamlined, though, the resulting sound matched the expansive confidence and command of Griffith’s performance. Older ballads such as Late Night Grand Hotel and It’s A Hard Life Wherever You Go nonetheless blossomed within the instrumentation’s more taut focus, highlighting the inherent drama of melody and lyrics, together with the bounty of Griffith’s voice. Copyright © 2005 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088

Vietnam War Still Fresh In Griffith's Mind

02/21/2005

February 21, 2005, 12:00 AM ET Vietnam War Still Fresh In Griffith's 'Mind' By Jim Bessman Four years after her last studio album, Nanci Griffith is back with a new one, "Hearts in Mind"; a new label, New Door/Universal Music Enterprises; and a new producer -- herself. CONTINUE READING...