Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits, starting in 1985 during season 10. Griffith's career spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she termed "folkabilly." She won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for her 1993 recording, Other Voices, Other Rooms. The album features Griffith covering the songs of artists who were her major influences. One of her better-known songs is "From a Distance," which was written and composed by Julie Gold.
Griffith toured with various other artists, including Buddy Holly's band - the Crickets (without Buddy Holly), John Prine, Iris DeMent, Suzy Bogguss, Judy Collins, and the Everly Brothers. Griffith recorded duets with many artists, among them Prine, Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, Don McLean, Jimmy Buffett, Dolores Keane, Willie Nelson, Adam Duritz (of Counting Crows), the Chieftains, John Stewart, and Darius Rucker. Griffith referred to her backing band as the Blue Moon Orchestra.
Griffith, the youngest of three siblings, was born in Seguin, Texas, and grew up in Rollingwood, a suburb of Austin, where her family moved shortly after her birth. Her mother Ruelene was a real estate agent and amateur actress; her father, Marlin Griffith, was a printer, publisher, graphic artist and barbershop quartet singer. Griffith began her music career at age 12, singing in a local coffeehouse. When she was a teenager, her father took her to see Townes Van Zandt. At 14, she performed her first professional gig at the Red Lion Cabaret in downtown Austin.
Griffith attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a degree in education. She taught kindergarten and first grade for a couple of years, before fully focusing on music.
Independent labels (1978–1986)
Her debut album, There's a Light Beyond These Woods, was released in 1978; the cover was designed by her father. Her second album, Poet in My Window, was released in 1982. Both albums were folk-oriented and released on small labels.
Griffith attracted attention of record producer Jim Rooney and recorded her third album, Once in a Very Blue Moon in 1984, in Nashville, with musicians such as Béla Fleck, Mark O'Connor and Lloyd Green. In the same year, she performed on PBS music program Austin City Limits. In the next year, with mostly the same musicians, she recorded the album The Last of the True Believers, which won her first Grammy nomination. The album included the songs "Love at the Five and Dime" and "Goin' Gone" which became hits for Kathy Mattea.
Griffith signed to MCA Records and moved to Nashville; her first album for MCA was the country-oriented Lone Star State of Mind, which included two songs, "Trouble in the Fields", co-written by Griffith, and "From a Distance", written by then unknown songwriter Julie Gold. These songs became popular in Ireland, and both have been covered by many singers. It was followed by Little Love Affairs, featuring "Outbound Plane" which later became a hit for Suzy Bogguss. In 1988, Griffith released One Fair Summer Evening, a live album recorded in Anderson Fair in Houston.
Griffith transferred to the MCA pop division and recorded Storms, which included a song she considered the most important she wrote, "It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go", about conflict in Northern Ireland and racism in the US.
In 1990, Griffith appeared on the Channel 4 program Town & Country with John Prine in a segment entitled "White Pants", where she wore white pants at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee, along with Buddy Mondlock, Barry "Byrd" Burton, and Robert Earl Keen.
Griffith released Late Night Grande Hotel in 1991, and then left MCA Records.
Other Voices, Other Rooms and later works
In 1993, Griffith released the album Other Voices, Other Rooms, which won her first and only Grammy award. The album featured songs by various folk and country songwriters, and a large group of musicians, from Bob Dylan to Odetta. The album was certified gold by RIAA in 2005, more than a decade after it was released.
In 1994, she released the album Flyer, which received another Grammy nomination.
In the same year, Griffith teamed 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. She survived breast cancer which was diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998.
Christine Lavin, a singer and songwriter, remembers the first time she saw Griffith perform:
I was struck by how perfect everything was about her singing, her playing, her talking. I realized from the get-go that this was someone who was a complete professional. Obviously she had worked a long time to get to be that good.
In the late 1990s, Griffith wrote a letter to a number of Texas media, expressing her frustration with recent reviews.