WOMAD

Nanci Griffith

From United States

For the decade or two before the mid-80s came along, country music was largely consigned to rhinestone-encrusted bargain bins in motorway service stations. Then, out of nowhere (well, more accurately, out of hard-living towns like Austin, San Antonio and Bakersfield) came a whole new generation of young country singers, all with an approach that sidestepped cliché and unstitched decades’ worth of fake sincerity. And while the likes of Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam vied for the title of king of what became known as ‘new country’, the queen had long since enjoyed her coronation. With a distinctively Texan vocal delivery and clutching a songbook crammed with cracking stories, Nanci Griffith effortlessly conquered all within earshot. Twenty years on, her songs still pulse with an emotional toughness belied by her sweeter-than-sweet voice. Their subject matter often goes far beyond affairs of the heart – Nanci’s last album, Hearts In Mind, was a no-punches-pulled diatribe against the horrors of war. And she’s not content with just being popular on Planet Earth. Her recording of From A Distance (the original and the best version, by the way) has twice been used to wake astronauts on the Space Shuttle. Cosmic.In A Few Words… Royal visit from ‘new country’ queen