Nanci Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter.
Nanci Griffith was the youngest of three children of Ruelene, a real estate agent and amateur actress, and Marlin Griffith, a graphic artist and barbershop quartet singer, and was born in Seguin, Texas and raised in Austin, Texas.
Nanci Griffith learned to play the guitar by watching a PBS TV series hosted by Laura Weber and started to write her own songs. She began her career as a singer performing in a local coffeehouse, aged 12. At the age of 14, she did her first professional gig at the Red Lion Cabaret in downtown Austin,
She played in clubs while finishing her academic qualifications, and after getting a degree in education from the University of Texas, became a kindergarten teacher.
Her debut album, “There’s a Light Beyond These Woods”, was released in 1978, with a cover designed by her father.
Nanci Griffith appeared many times on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985 on season 10.
Her career spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she termed “folkabilly.”
Nanci Griffith won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for her 1993 recording, “Other Voices, Other Rooms” which features Griffith covering the songs of artists who were her major influences.
One of Nanci’s best known songs is “From a Distance,” which was written and composed by Julie Gold, although Bette Midler’s version achieved greater commercial success.
Some of the songs that Nanci Griffith wrote or co-wrote have had greater success for other artists, including Kathy Mattea, who had a country music top five hit with a 1986 cover of Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime” and Suzy Bogguss who had one of her largest hits with Griffith’s and Tom Russell’s “Outbound Plane”.
In 1994, Nanci Griffith teamed up with Jimmy Webb to contribute the song “If These Old Walls Could Speak” to the AIDS benefit album “Red Hot + Country” which was produced by the Red Hot Organization.
In 1995, Nanci Griffith was inducted into Austin Music Hall of Fame and was also awarded the Kate Wolf Memorial Award by the World Folk Music Association.
Nanci Griffith was a survivor of breast cancer which was diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998.
Nanci Griffith toured with various other artists, including Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets, John Prine, Iris DeMent, Judy Collins and The Everly Brothers.
Nanci Griffith recorded duets with many artists, among them Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, John Prine, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows, the Chieftains, John Stewart; and Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish. She also contributed background vocals on many other recordings.
Nanci Griffith had a backing band which she referred to as the Blue Moon Orchestra.
From 2004 Nanci Griffith suffered from severe writer’s block which lasted until the 2009 release of her “The Loving Kind” album, which included nine tracks that she had written and composed either entirely by herself or as collaborations.
In 2008, the Americana Music Association awarded Nanci Driffith its Lifetime Americana Trailblazer Award, and in 2010, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
After several months of limited touring in 2011, Nanci Griffith’s last album “Intersection” was recorded at her home in Nashville over the course of the summer and co-produced by her. The album included several new original songs and was released in April 2012 on Proper Records.
Nanci Griffith died in Nashville on August 13, 2021, at the age of 68. The cause of death was not reported.
Nanci Griffith was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association’s Hall of Fame at the Paramount Theatre in Austin in February 2022.
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