Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLVIII--Nanci Griffith: On Grafton Street

I first discovered Nanci Griffith on Other Voices, Other Rooms, her paean to the artists who influenced her (which won a much deserved Grammy Award for Contemporary Folk Album in 1994).  I have been quite a fan of hers since (even went to see her with John Prince--a dream concert for an Old Fart Folkie), and could quite easily have picked any one of eight or nine songs on that album for this week's tune.  But I wanted to highlight a song that she had written (all fifteen of the songs on Other Voices, Other Rooms were written by the artists she was influenced by), and chose this week's tune because it seemed to me to reflect best her songwriting abilities...though any of another seven or eight could have probably done the same.

Nanci Griffith's career got its start in 1978 in Austin, Texas and has extended to the present day.  While she has never had a great deal of commercial success, she can best be described as an artists' artist--with the testament of the plethora of musicians who have played at one time or another on one of her albums (Bob Dylan, John Prine, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. of U2, and Adam Duritz to name a few).  Over the course of the last forty-one years, she has released 20 studio albums, five compilations, and one live album.  While her highest charting album here in the States broke the top fifty on the Billboard 200, she has had two top twenty albums on the U.K. charts (so many cool kids in the U.K.).  Griffith has also written a couple of top ten hit singles on the country charts for Kathy Mattea and Suzy Boggus.  Griffith's backing band is known as the Blue Moon Orchestra (kind of cool for a backing band name).  She is a survivor of breast cancer and thyroid cancer. 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  Griffith's high school boyfriend was killed in a motorcycle accident after taking her to the senior prom.  He has been the inspiration for a number of her songs since.

"On Grafton Street" was never released as a single.  It appeared on Griffith's 1994 album Flyer, which was the highest charting album of her career, peaking at #48 on the Billboard charts.

In "On Grafton Street," Nanci Griffith weaves the tale of a woman walking the streets of a foreign town at Christmas time who is reminded of a lost love (Griffith has noted that Flyer was her most autobiographical album, so there's probably a germ of reality in this one), but despite once having believed she couldn't live without him is surprised to find so many years later that her life has gone on just fine without him, and that the memory of him can still bring a smile to her face.  While it would have been easy to turn such a song into a sappy affair, Griffith does a nice job of letting the unexplained remain unexplained, with her nod to the path to happiness not always being the one we wished.  Griffith has a beautiful voice, makes good use of the sweet melody that permeates both song and chrous, and lets the instruments throughout speak softly but carry a big stick.  Every now and again a song comes along that--while maybe not your exact experience--has a ray of truth to it that you've seen reflected in your own life, and makes for some winsome listening.  "On Grafton Street" is one such song, and is a testament to the enduring--if sometimes fleeting--nature of love.

Lyric Sheet:  "It's been twenty years or more/Since I last said your name/I hear you live in Dallas now/In a house out on the plains/Why Grafton Street brought you to mind/I really can't explain..."

Enjoy:

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