One of my favorite recording artists was Nanci Griffith, the delicate, sweet-sounding singer from Southwest Texas, Sequin, who wrote nearly everything she sang. Her songs became bigger hits for others than herself. I never saw her perform, but she was vastly underrated.
As I did with anyone whose music I liked, I would occasionally search the sites to see if they released anything new. Nanci seemed to be stuck on the album 'Intersection,' which I didn't realize until I read the obit was her last album, released in 2012. Nine years, just doesn't seem that long ago.
She was a prolific recording artist, and produced 18 albums, some retreads, but mostly new material. My guess is she was extremely popular in Ireland and England, with a cherished track on a Chieftains album with a variety of other artists.
The woman she sang about in 'Ford Fairlane' was a singer who not that long ago passed away herself. As always, reading obits is informative.
Nanci's song 'Love at the Five and Dime' is introduced by her story of stopping the car and heading into a Woolworth's in London is a treasure. "Woolworth stores everywhere have the same smell; chewing gum and popcorn rubbed around on the bottom of a leather soled shoe."
If you're old enough to remember Woolworth stores you know she was right. I can still smell the Woolworth's in Flushing on the corner of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue that we walked through after school in the '60s. There was a huge popcorn machine in the corner and basically its smell carried throughout the whole store. You thought you were at a carnival. I never saw anyone buy popcorn there, but it was continually being made.
And stopping into Woolworth's to buy some "unnecessary plastic objects" has the complete ring of truth. I worked with a fellow who once told me that the shortcut we all took through the Woolworth's store on Third Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets to reach the subway on 42nd Street was sometimes not worth taking when you got stuck behind a lady who was buying "a ceramic dog."
And of course he was right. The aisles were narrow, and the shortcut no longer created an advantage to getting home when you had the bad luck to be blocked by such a shopper. In fact, Woolworth management got so tired of the traffic walking briskly through the store that they would lock the 41st Street door around our quitting time. You had to use the sidewalk.
Nanci also added a pitch perfect guitar rendition of a "lift" or elevator bell in a Woolworth Store. It was the sound of all elevator bells as the doors closed. There isn't a Woolworth Store I can think of that doesn't appear in some phase of my life.
Reading Nanci's liner notes she tells of the artist whose work appears as the cover, Susannah Clark, certainly an artistic rendition of what the Dust Bowl weather was like. Nanci of course sang several songs that alluded to the Dust Bowl and the Depression, no doubt from stories from her relatives, like "my great-aunt Nettie Mae."
The titles on the album are familiar, the arrangements are not, given the lushness added by the London Symphony Orchestra. There are cellos, flutes, oboes, bassoons, and of course violins. The cello alone will make you cry.
Interesting in the obit was mention of her touring with the surviving members of Buddy Holly band, the Crickets. She includes a song written by Buddy and Jerry Alison, 'Tell Me How,' a sure-fire Crickets arrangement with harmony vocals by another Cricket, Sonny Curtis. Her liner notes also reveal something I didn't know: Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin. How's that for a 'Jeopardy' clue someday?
In a certain way, there is no album after 'Intersection.' But there is a new album for your ears when you find one you didn't have.
Nanci dedicates her 'Dust Bowl Symphony' album to the "Memories of Townes Van Zandt, Bob Claypool, Kate Wolf, Roy Husky, Jr. and Buddy Holly."
And now there will those who dedicate their albums to her.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
lovely tribute, John. I agree -- she was special!
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