More Than A Whisper, Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith.

It has rained here for days on end, but I have been quite content to stay indoors with my books and music. Today I thought I would tell you about a wonderful album of music that arrived here yesterday. It is called More Than A Whisper, Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith. A few days ago a good friend of mine sent me a link to a song by Steve Earle called It’s A Hard Life Wherever You Go. As you know, I am a big fan of Steve and I immediately loved this song, and the sentiment behind it. It also had an Irish feel with the uilleann pipe playing of Ivan Goff and mentions of Belfast. I decided I needed to hear the whole album, especially when I saw that it was packed with songs by some of my favourite artists. I ordered it online and it arrived 48 hours later.

Nanci & John Prine.

The cover has a nice photo of Nanci composing one of her songs. In the sleeve notes Mary Gauthier writes an eloquent tribute to Nanci. Mary also sings the title track which is superb with a wonderful string arrangement. You may remember I wrote a piece about Mary when I bought her album Mercy Now a few years ago. (See below for a video of Nanci’s original version) The opening track is You Can’t Go Home Again. I expect Nanci got the song title from a book by Thomas Wolfe. Sarah Jarosz sings the song and as well as her vocals I love the pedal steel guitar playing of Larry Campbell. As you probably know Nanci died just over two years ago, only a year after another much missed singer, her good friend John Prine. John sings one of my favourite Nanci songs Love At The Five & Dime. It is a duet with Kelsey Waldon who I didn’t know anything about until yesterday, but I love her voice. 

Billy Strings & Molly Tuttle perform the next song Listen To The Radio. It is only the two of them on guitar and vocals, but the guitar picking is sublime. No wonder he is called Billy Strings. Emmylou Harris is one of my all-time favourite singers and she sings Love Wore A Halo (Back Before The War) The fiddle playing and accordion are great. Trouble In The Fields is an emotional sad song by Lyle Lovett & Kathy Mattea which tells the story of a couple who have to sell their John Deere tractor and do its work themselves. John Steinbeck would have liked this song!. I don’t know anything about Brandy Clark, but I should do after hearing her sing Gulf Coast Highway. I do know Shawn Colvin who sings Outbound Plane because I have her album A Few Small Repairs. I see that Nanci wrote this song with Tom Russell, another great singer-songwriter. 

I definitely haven’t heard of Ida Mae before who perform Radio Fragile. It has an experimental sound with keyboards, synthesizers and percussion. Late Night Grande Hotel features Aaron Lee Tasjan on piano and vocals, and I see Patty Griffin sings harmony vocals. The sound of a car driving away announces the arrival of Ford Econoline by Todd Snider. Willie Nelson’s granddaughter Raelyn Nelson can be heard on backing vocals. The wonderful Iris Dement plays piano and sings Banks Of The Pontchartrain. This excellent album is brought to a soulful climax by The War & Treaty singing Nanci’s best-known song From a Distance written by Julie Gold. I think I have heard this album about five times now and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed hearing every single song. If you like Americana style music I think you will enjoy it as well. It is a fitting tribute to a much-loved great singer and songwriter.