NANCI GRIFFITH
Winter Marquee (Rounder)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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This live album, recorded while Nanci Griffith and her Blue Moon Orchestra were on tour supporting her last release, Clock Without Hands, features a combination of covers and older original material that was added to the tour song list in order to keep the sets fresh and the musicians engaged. The resulting new look at some old favorites, both Griffith's songs and others from the songbooks of Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Julie Gold and Phil Ochs, is thoroughly engaging.

The cover material fits Griffith's distinctive vocal delivery so well that those not familiar with their sources might think they were her own songs. Her performances here give her a solid claim to at least partial ownership. Her own material, some dating back well over a decade, sounds as solid and fresh as the tunes were when new. Hopefully this will lead to some of her newer fans digging a bit deeper into the catalog she's compiled during the last 20 or so years. There's a rich vein of musical gold in her background, and this album is both a joy in its own right and a fine pointer to more of the same.

Track List:

Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness * I Wish It Would Rain * Boots Of Spanish Leather * Two For The Road * Listen To The Radio * There's A Light Beyond These Woods (Mary Margaret) * Gulf Coast Highway * The Flyer * Good Night, New York * Traveling Through This Part Of You * Last Train Home * I'm Not Driving These Wheels (Bring The Prose To The Wheel) * That's What I Hear * White Freight Liner

© 2002 - Shaun Dale