Long before David Gray, the phenomenon of Irish audiences bestowing a hundred thousand welcomes on a singer-songwriter from abroad was evident in the popularity of Nanci Griffith on this island. The meek-sounding Texan songstress flies in for yet another brace of gigs this May when she plays the Olympia, Dublin on 24th and 25th May.
After the success of her last Other Voices, Too tour, the Grammy-winning folk artist will be concentrating on the finest moments of her own recording career, rather than paying tribute to her elders. These two shows will be based around her current album, The Dust Bowl Symphony, which was partly recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios with the London Symphony Orchestra.
After two volumes of Other Voices, Other Rooms, it was nice to be Nanci Griffith again, the singer told Hot Press.
The new album has a strong sense of nostalgia about it both for the songs themselves (some of which date back to the infancy of her career) and the place which inspired them. Griffith is one of a string of revered folk singers to have emerged from the Lone Star State from Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Terry Allen. . . What s her explanation of the phenomenon?
I ll defer to Roy Orbison, answers Nanci. He said that a lot of us [singer-songwriters] come from West Texas because there s absolutely nothing to look at here and if you want to survive as a child, you have to learn to use your imagination very early on in life. I think that s probably it. It s as simple as that.
As a rule, there seems to be a lot of darkness in these Texan songwriters. Does Nanci think it s directly influenced by the landscape?
I don t know, she says. Coming from there, I probably can t see it. It s like the trees and the forest. I grew up idolising and worshipping Buddy Holly and The Crickets. And Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt as well. So Texas has a lot of diverse artists.
The sleeve of the Dust Bowl Symphony album features a specially commissioned painting (of the dust bowl) by Griffith s friend, Susanna Clark wife of Guy. Nanci rates her work very highly.
Susannah, of course, is well known as an artist, she says. She did Willie Nelson s Stardust cover. She painted that painting. She did Emmylou Harris Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town cover, as well as being an incredible songwriter. She s a very talented woman.