It’s when the darkness rolls away.

August 13, 2021 2:15 PM

Nanci Griffith has passed, age 68. Such sad news. I had the privilege and joy to see her twice, and her cover of Kate Wolf’s Across the Great Divide has helped me through every dark patch of life I’ve encountered. It really was impossible to see her perform and not feel like some of your hope and decency had been renewed. Earlier this year, she was inducted into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rest in harmony and power, dear lady.
posted by Silvery Fish (49 comments total)

My parents are probably where I got my tendency to listen to just a handful of artists on repeat (a small cache of cassette tapes in the center console of the car on long road trips), and Nanci was one of the voices I heard a lot of as a kid. The songs always seem to have another layer of emotion that I uncover as I move through adult life. Teared up when I read of her passing this afternoon.
posted by rivenwanderer at 2:27 PM on August 13, 2021 [10 favorites]

She was such a wonderful performer. I saw her twice in the early Nineties, and they are concerts I often remember. For many years, I wanted to read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, just because of that portrait of her cradling the book on the back of the Last Of The True Believers LP cover.

Earlier this year, I read it, and it's sensational (also problematic, but what story-telling). She was such a story-teller in her songs, I'm not surprised she loved it.
posted by MinPin at 2:29 PM on August 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

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posted by eviemath at 2:31 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Damn. She’s always been one of my favorites. Back when I owned CDs, I think I had nearly every album she put out. I never got a chance to see her live and I’ve been checking regularly to see if she was touring again. “Grafton Street” is one of her many songs that make me tear up every time.
posted by diamondsky at 2:37 PM on August 13, 2021 [5 favorites]

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I always hoped I'd see her live, her music meant so much to me.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 2:39 PM on August 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

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posted by ducky l'orange at 2:41 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

I saw her at a folk festival back in the 90s and she was wonderful. Such a loss.
posted by bondcliff at 2:44 PM on August 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

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posted by little mouth at 3:03 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by introp at 3:12 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've had Other Voices, Other Rooms memorized since age ten. It was always on on long car trips. So sad.
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posted by Adridne at 3:20 PM on August 13, 2021 [7 favorites]

What a loss. I didn't know she was so young. All of her work is great but I will always be partial to Other Voices, Other Rooms (her version of Tecumseh Valley is so good). She was such a thoughtful storyteller in her songs.
posted by not_the_water at 3:25 PM on August 13, 2021 [6 favorites]

Such sad news. I saw her at a charity concert in 2002, where she shared the stage with Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, John Prine and Elvis Costello. The purity of her voice was incredible. Gulf Coast Highway is one of my all-time favourite songs, it's playing now as I type this. I'm at the age now where the heroes of mine who are passing are pretty close to my age.
posted by essexjan at 3:30 PM on August 13, 2021 [6 favorites]

Other Voices, Other Rooms opened so many doors for me, including to Nanci’s own songs. I had the privilege to see her tour with The Crickets, who are also from Lubbock. Such joy in that performance.

There’s a light beyond these woods, Mary Margaret

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posted by jilloftrades at 3:36 PM on August 13, 2021 [6 favorites]

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posted by temancl at 3:45 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

More than a Whisper from the one of the best live albums ever recorded, One Fair Summers Evening.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:34 PM on August 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

One Fair Summer Evening is one of my favorite live albums ever. I could even just listen to her introductions to the songs over and over.

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posted by eckeric at 4:37 PM on August 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

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posted by jim in austin at 4:51 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

ThanKYEW

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posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:57 PM on August 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Strong voice of summer

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 5:13 PM on August 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Strong voice of summer

This is exactly what I was thinking!

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posted by GenjiandProust at 5:16 PM on August 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

She is one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Couldn’t begin to choose which album I love most. Saw her in concert a couple of times and she was always great. 68 is much too young. I hope she’s in whatever her version of heaven is, maybe a Woolworth’s, singing duets with John Prine.
posted by pjsky at 5:19 PM on August 13, 2021 [10 favorites]

I saw her at Birmingham Town Hall back in the late 80s / early 90s, and she was great. I remember not only the sublime musicianship and the wonderful songs but also how funny she was. Just a charming and talented performer.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 5:46 PM on August 13, 2021 [3 favorites]

This is so sad! One of my favorite things is the ACL that she did with Indigo Girls and Mary Chapin Carpenter, and One Fair Summer Evening is just a delight. She's been a voice in my life for many decades, and I'm glad to still have her recordings.

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posted by hippybear at 5:52 PM on August 13, 2021 [3 favorites]

As near as I can tell I first saw her on a business trip to Austin on March 4, 1995. I was with a colleague, and when I found out she was playing at the Paramount downtown I insisted that we both go. That was a magical show, filled with a hometown-like crowd that were happy to have her there.

Years later, my wife and and I got to see her. I had introduced her to Nanci. My wife’s family are farmers, and both our parents are children of the Depression, and I suppose you could say much of her music appeals to some genetic sensibilities we possess.

Tonight we have listened to much. Other folks have mentioned Other Voices, Other Rooms, so I’ll mention her duet with John Prine on his “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” as one of my favorites, and especially bittersweet having seen him shortly before his death.

Gulf Coast Highway, though, breaks me every time.
posted by grimjeer at 6:20 PM on August 13, 2021 [7 favorites]

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posted by hijinx at 6:49 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by pt68 at 7:42 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

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Other Voices, Other Rooms is on rotation tonight.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 7:42 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by droplet at 7:43 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's just slowly hitting me how much losing her hits . . . I learned to sing harmony to every single one of her albums. Something about her, which she seemed to insist be understood only through her music, just meant an awful lot to me . . .
posted by pt68 at 7:58 PM on August 13, 2021 [5 favorites]

Currently drinking whiskey and listening to all the Nanci Griffith that Spotify will give me. Then I'll dig into the cds.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:50 PM on August 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Sadly, I have no Canadian whiskey so Kentucky will have to do.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:52 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

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I somehow associate her with the summer between high school and college, when my then-girlfriend's parents played her album a lot. The girlfriend even put "Once in a Very Blue Moon" on a mix tape.
posted by MrGuilt at 9:12 PM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

booooooo.... damnit. she was on the list of performers I needed to see again and missed. (Prine being the other)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:36 PM on August 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

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posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 1:25 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Nanci Griffith, If These Old Walls Could Speak
Nanci Griffith (et al.) Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Boots of Spanish Leather - Nanci Griffith
posted by TrishaU at 2:37 AM on August 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

Dang! I am bereft. Let's do From a distance
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:44 AM on August 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

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posted by pangolin party at 5:23 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by fourpotatoes at 5:42 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by theora55 at 8:45 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by mcbeth at 8:48 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by scruss at 8:53 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Love at the Five and Dime

Dance a little closer to me
Hey, it's closing time
And love's on sale
Tonight at this five and dime
posted by chavenet at 9:56 AM on August 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

I've been listening to her albums since childhood when my parents played them so often and her songs are still mixed into the shuffle of my music collection.

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posted by kittensyay at 10:30 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

🎶
posted by tilde at 10:46 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Love at the Five and Dime" was the perennial last song at my camp's dances. I can't listen to it without hearing it echoing off the pavilion and blending with the sounds of a Shenandoah summer night.
posted by jocelmeow at 10:55 AM on August 14, 2021 [6 favorites]

I'm another one who has Other Voices, Other Rooms practically stitched into my soul. Saw her at the Albert Hall a good few years ago now.

May your suitcase be eternally full of unnecessary plastic objects, Nanci.

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posted by penguin pie at 3:18 PM on August 14, 2021 [6 favorites]

It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go.

I've been listening to her for thirty years. This is so unfair.
posted by suelac at 3:57 PM on August 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

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posted by filtergik at 5:23 AM on August 15, 2021

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posted by alikins at 1:59 AM on August 17, 2021