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This is a quick thread about one of my favorite songwriters and singers of all time, Nanci Griffith. Born in 1953 in Seguin and raised in Austin, Texas — like me! — she released her first album in 1978 and her most recent in 2012.
I first saw Nanci live at Kerrville Folk Festival when I was 9 or 10 years old, and I was immediately captivated by every single thing about her, from her elven beauty to her charming banter to her songs, especially her love songs which I could listen to while thinking about JTT.
She made frequent appearances on Austin City Limits throughout the 80s and 90s, so you can get a sense of how incredibly charming she is on stage. Here's an early clip.
"It was [where] you changed buses, when going from north to south Austin, and when you got off the bus you had just enough time to run inside, and get yourself a coca cola, look through the record bin, wink at the boys and then get back on the bus."
Some of Nanci's best songs are covers, and she has a gorgeously curated album of them called Other Voices, Other Rooms, featuring songs mostly by her legendary friends: John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, plus my fav version of 'Boots of Spanish Leather' https://open.spotify.com/album/7f6KnLDGh7SlqLPSpMLjEE?si=Mm2IOxljQ5unl1a_IEy-RA
She has an incredible voice. When she's younger it's so pretty, if a bit strange, but as she's gotten older she has really leaned in. I'm obsessed with this song from 2001 ("brand new plastic skates" is an especially big delivery)
But mostly I love Nanci as a songwriter. She is so UNDERRATED. Her songs are earworms, surprising, poetic, emotional, sometimes full of regret or rage and sometimes soft and sweet. She writes about womanhood, desire, the injustices of society, the struggles of normal ppl.
I wonder about how we genre-fy things, and why Nanci isn't seen as the direct ancestor to indie singer-songwriters like Angel Olsen. Though many of her songs are firmly country/folk, others are downright rock or simply unclassifiable. Here's another fav. https://open.spotify.com/track/6jPVzZSHO8RCnHaoLNT12d?si=rhB1mh_ERBin81EaaqsxYg
BTW, Nanci is the reason Darius Rucker first started listening to country music! He was an 80s kid into Husker Du (I know lol) when he heard her for the first time and became an immediate convert.
She wrote song songs with Adam Duritz for my favorite album of hers, 'Flyer'. This one has him singing too and it's just wonderful.
I just think everyone should know about Nanci and pay her the respect she deserves because she is a living legend and one of the best songwriters of all time. Here's a new playlist I made of 40 of the best songs she's written (or co-wrote) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RN5FmA565wSpRRc22XllH?si=Hg58IRm8T3WYxVQ_yiQ_Rw
PS I think @phoebe_bridgers should cover this song
If someone gave me a lot of money I would adapt “The Flyer” into a movie starring Jenny Lewis as the famousish singer intensely flirting for ~one night only~ with a pilot played by maybe Gael Garcia Bernal (“we sang songs we knew in Spanish”!)
