This 2005 collection of songs about love and war, Nanci's first studio album since 2001, is dedicated to the memory of every soldier and every civilian lost to the horrors of war. An uncompromising, unflinching look at war and an ultimately hopeful look at love, Nanci wrote or co-wrote eight of the 13 tracks. Continuing the proud folksinger tradition of reflecting on current events, "Heart Of Indochine" and "Old Hanoi" echo her recent travels to Indochina with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. Her anti-war stance also reverberates in "Big Blue Ball Of War" and "A Simple Life." Songwriter Julie Gold (whose Grammy winning "From A Distance" was first recorded by Griffith) contributes "Mountain Of Sorrow," an emotional reaction to looking outside her New York City window on 9-11 and watching the terror unfold at the World Trade towers. Love prevails in "Love Conquers all" (co-written with Charlie Stefl), "Angels" (penned by Tom Kimmel and Jennifer Kimball), "Beautiful" (Griffith’s tribute to her stepfather) and two strings-laced tracks--"Rise To The Occasion" (from Ron Davies and with guest vocals by MacAnally) and "Back When Ted Loved Sylvia" (the story of the relationship between modern poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath as written by Le Ann Etheridge). Love does however fall short of its goal on Griffith and Etheridge’s "Before," Griffith’s "Last Train Home" and Clive Gregson’s tongue-in-cheek "I Love This Town," featuring Buffett on guest vocals.

Hearts In Mind is an album by country singer Nanci Griffith, which was released in Ireland and the United Kingdom on October 11th 2004. It was later released in the USA on February 1st 2005 featuring the bonus track "Our Very Own".. As with Griffith's 2001 album Clock Without Hands, Vietnam is a recurring theme ("Old Hanoi" , "Heart Of Indochine").

This text has been derived from Hearts in Mind on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0

Artist/Band Information

Nanci Griffith, (born Nanci Caroline Griffith, July 6, 1953, Seguin, Texas) is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.

Biography

Griffith's career has spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she terms "folkabilly." Griffith won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for her recording, Other Voices, Other Rooms. This album features Griffith covering the songs of artists who are her major influences. One of her better-known songs is "From a Distance" by Julie Gold, although Bette Midler's version achieved greater commercial success. Similarly, other artists have occasionally achieved greater success with Griffith's songs than Griffith herself. For example, Kathy Mattea had a country music top five hit with a 1986 cover of Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime," and Suzy Bogguss had one of her largest hits with Griffith's and Tom Russell's "Outbound Plane."

Griffith's high school boyfriend, John, died in a motorcycle accident after taking her to the senior prom, and subsequently inspired many of her songs.http Griffith was married to singer-songwriter Eric Taylor from 1976 to 1982. In the early 1990s, she was engaged to singer-songwriter Tom Kimmel, but the couple parted before marrying. In 1994, Griffith teamed up with Jimmy Webb to contribute the song "If These Old Walls Could Speak" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. Griffith is a survivor of breast cancer which was diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998. at nancigriffith.com

Griffith has in recent years toured with various other artists including Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets, John Prine, Iris DeMent, Suzy Bogguss and Judy Collins. Griffith has recorded duets with many artists, among them Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, John Prine, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Dolores Keane, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz (singer of Counting Crows), The Chieftains, and Darius Rucker (singer of Hootie & the Blowfish). She has also contributed background vocals on many other recordings.

Griffith suffered from severe 'writers block' for a number of years after 2004, lasting until 2009 and the release of 'The Loving Kind' album which contained nine self-penned or co-written songs.

As well as her own songs Griffith is well-known for her outstanding versions of other people's material, usually by contemporary singer-songwriters.

Band (The Blue Moon Orchestra)

Current members

* Nanci Griffith — lead vocals, guitar

* Pat McInerney — percussion, vocals

* Thomm Jutz — guitar, vocals

* Jumbo John - Vocals

Previous band members

* James Hooker — keyboards, vocals

* Clive Gregson — guitar, vocals

* Ron De La Vega — bass, cello

* Pete Kennedy — guitar

* Maura Kennedy — vocals

* Iris DeMent — vocals

* Fran Breen — drums

* Philip Donnelly — guitar

* Le Ann Etheridge — bass guitar, vocals, mandolin

* Lee Satterfield — vocals, guitar, mandolin

* Lyle Lovett — backing vocals

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Awards

Griffith won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Other Voices, Other Rooms.

Videography

* Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration Sony VHS (1993)

* Other Voices, Other Rooms Elektra Video VHS (1993)

* Winter Marquee Rounder/Universal DVD, Widescreen, (2002)

* One Fair Summer Evening...Plus! Universal Music & VI DVD, Fullscreen, (2005)

See also

*Music of Austin

References

This text has been derived from Nanci Griffith on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0