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Jul 31, 1997, 3:00:00 AM7/31/97

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<CENTER>(Nanci article from Aquarian Weekly 7/30/97)</CENTER>
BUZZ 
BY LYDIA CARLOE DEFRETOS
NANCI GRIFFITH
All Grown Up And Moving On
<HR>

 
Over the last decade, Nanci Griffith has become one of the most beloved artists of well-crafted folk/rock, selling more records with each release and filling concert halls from coast to coast. On her latest album, Blue Roses From The Moon, Grammy-winner Griffith and her Blue Moon Orchestra band sing of life, love and all the bittersweet joys that go along with them. The disc features some very special guests including Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker and Sonny Curtis with Buddy Holly's legandary band, The Crickets. 
 
Griffith, who has been categorized as everything from country to pop, once described her style as folkabilly. The Texas native is immensely popular with musicains ranging from U2 to the Indigo Girls. But fans had better catch her when she tours later this Summer because she's planning on retiring following the early '98 release of her last disc, Other Voices, Too. But until she can have that more normal life she's long been wanting, Griffith will be doing what she knows best-playing concerts and talking to the press. 
 
 You sound like you're having so much fun on Blue Roses... 
You just get all those people from Texas together and you can't possibly not have fun. And it's all live. When we were recording, Sonny Curtis and I were put in the same room together. He's just my lifelong guitar hero, songwriting hero, West Texas dustbowl pioneer of rock 'n' roll. So it wassuch a joy, you can hear us laughing. 
 
I know that for quite a while you've been trying to 'have a life.' Did you cut back on touring at all? 
 
Well, we never stopped touring. But what I did these past three years is write the stuff for this album... 
 
And put together the next record. 
 
We just finished Other Voices, Too. But for the past three years I also had the opportunity to do other things. In the past I've been asked to work on other people's projects, and I would have to say, 'I'm so sorry I can't do it' or 'I'm on the road.' It's been delightful for me to be able to participate in the Sweet Relief album and bring in my friends Hootie & The Blowfish. Plus, I got the chance to work on their album, and they came in and did 'Streets of Baltimore' with us for the Other Voices, Too project. It was pretty incredible to hear them do a country song. 
 
And, of course, Darius has always said his fantasy for the 10 years before they became an overnight success, was that he would enter the theater at a Nacni Griffith concert and he would imagine that there would be this announcement: 'Due to laryngitis, James Hooker will be unable to sing the duet on 'Gulf Coast Highway.' The part this evening wil be sung by Darius Rucker.' That's why, in celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Blue Moon Orchestra, James Hooker said, 'Let's call Darius and get him to sing 'Gulf Coast Highway,' 'cause I don't need to sing it. I sing this live every night and Darius has always wanted to do it.' And Darius took it to a completely different highway, it was such a joy. 
 
Somehow, you managed to recapture the sound of The Blue Moon Orchestra and to combine it with the request from your fans for another live album. Do you think down the road that you might do another concert album? 
 
I really don't know. I think that right now I am the happiest I've ever been because I feel that these two albums are the last thing that I'm going to do. I've beenmaking records for 20 years, Blue Roses... is my 13th album, and I'm set to walk that walk and talk that talk for both these albums. 
 
Aside from Hootie & The Blowfish, who else is on Other Voices, Too? 
 
There's 87 guests, but it won't be out until February of '98. There's everyone from Richard Thompson to Emmylou Harris and her daughter Megan, my ex-husband, Eric Taylor, Steve Earle, Tom Rush, Rodney Crowell and on and on. There's a couple of people that were on the first one that are on this one. We didn't try to compete with the first one. This time Jim Rooney and I sat down and said, 'No one's really explored that period of time from the mid-'50s to the '60s, when early rock 'n' roll and folk music merged.' So we explored songs like 'You Were On My Mind' and 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes.'

I'm sure you had a lengthy list of songs. You could even start a third one at some point, if you ever decide to continue making records. 
 
If I ever decide to do that again. Jim Rooney and I feel that we explored all of the ones that we didn't get to do on the first volume. There's everything from Stephen Foster's 'Hard Times Come Again No More,' which we found by going through the Foster archives. We got the original sheet music and found that it was part of an operetta thta Foster had written. He came from Belfast, and he moved to the United States during the potato famine. We found out that that was the only piece of music he ever wrote that referred to the famine in Ireland. 
 
Were the songs on Blue Roses... written over a certain period of time? 
 
Well, my favorite song on the album, 'Not My Way Home,' took four years to write. It was supposed to be on The Flyer album. I kept working on it at sound checks and the abnd kept saying, 'When are you going to finish that?' I said, 'I don't know, there's something missing here.' Then Sonny and I were sitting around one day and he just starting singing on the chorus, and I went home and finished it. I said, 'It's finished now, all I needed was his sweet voice.' 
 
Out of the 14 songs on the record, I'd say I've got at least half-a-dozen favorites. I love 'Is This All There Is?' 
 
I co-wrote that with the guy that everybody in Nashville refers to as my evil twin, Tom Littlefield. He's a punk rocker who has several bands that were on the verge of success, including the Questionaires. Littlefield already had the title for that one, and when we got together he said 'Nanci, you just exploded with all of this emotion, and I knew exactly where it came from, and who it was about.' So it's pretty personal. 
 
Can you talk about the real-life story behind 'Saint Teresa?' I'm sorry you lost your friend. 
 
I wrote this song on a conference call with my friend Mary Margaret and my sister Mikki. When Don heard it he said, "You've got to put this on here because I've never heard anything in my life that gave me so much peace.' Teresa was never suicidal or depressed. Of all of us she had been the most productive. She was a very prominent judge. But she had just gone through a nasty divorce, and lost custidy of her children. The reason she lost her kids was because the court felt she was too career-oriented and she had little time. When Teresa killed herself she shot herself twice. That led us all to believe that she wanted out of here. She was ready to go. 
 
Are you at all concerned that your songwriting is becoming too personal? 
 
No, not really. In making this record, and the songs that I chose for Other Voices, Too, they're mostly songs that I can relate to my own life. I think that in knowing that these are the last two records I intend to make... 
 
I really wish you'd stop saying that.

But it's true. I've fulfilled all my contractual agreements with labels. I feel like a great survivor in that I've never been dropped from a label, and all 13 of my records are still available in the stores. I've been blessed with a wonderful career. I'm ready now to grow up and be Harlan Howard. 
 
So this is it. 
 
Right. We're scheduled to go out on a world tour with The Nashville Ballet, which is actually the Joffrey Ballet, in '99. But that's something different. We enjoy doing that; all we have to do is stand in the pit and the band plays and I sing. It's a beautiful ballet that they've put together with seven of my songs, and I guess they've been working on two more from this album. Little projects like that will be fun for me. 
 
Will you still do specail guest appearances on other people's albums? 
 
Oh, sure, that's a lovely experience. But just not wanting to be on a treadmill anymore. I'm not the Rolling Stones. I don't want to be doing this at 50, and I'll be 43 in July. It's just time to move into other directions. Two Of A Kind Hearts, the nove, has just been picked up by Random House. It will be out either this Fall or more likely next Spring.

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tr...@wizvax.net

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Aug 1, 1997, 3:00:00 AM8/1/97

Hello. Does this work? wow!

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Ken Taylor

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Aug 7, 1997, 3:00:00 AM8/7/97

James Homann wrote:

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