Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Seguin, Texas. Born in 1953, she is raised in Austin, Texas, and later lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Her work spans country, folk and related forms, including what she calls “folkabilly”.

Career

Griffith builds a reputation both as a writer and as a performer of other songwriters’ material, especially contemporary singer-songwriters. She is best known for “From a Distance”, written by Julie Gold, although the version that becomes a larger commercial success is by Bette Midler. Her own songs are also recorded by other artists; Kathy Mattea has a country top-five hit with a cover of Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime”.

Her backing group is known as The Blue Moon Orchestra, a name linked to one of her early albums, Once in a Very Blue Moon, and its title track, which reaches number 85 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1986.

Recordings and collaborations

Griffith wins the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Other Voices, Other Rooms, an album of covers of artists who influenced her. In the same year, she teams up with Jimmy Webb to contribute “If These Old Walls Could Speak” to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country, produced by the Red Hot Organization.

She records duets with Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, John Prine, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Dolores Keane, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz, The Chieftains and Darius Rucker, and also contributes backing vocals to other recordings. She tours with Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets, John Prine, Iris DeMent, Suzy Bogguss and Judy Collins.

Later work and health

After a period of writer’s block beginning after 2004, Griffith returns with The Loving Kind in 2009, which includes nine songs written entirely by her or as collaborations. After limited touring in 2011, her bandmates Pete and Maura Kennedy relocate their Manhattan studio to Nashville and install it in her home, where she and her backing team, including the Kennedys and Pat McInerney, co-produce Intersections, released in 2012. The album includes several new original songs.

Griffith survives breast cancer, diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer, diagnosed in 1998.

Awards

In 2008, the Americana Music Association awards Griffith its Americana Trailblazer Award.