There’s a lovely clear radio broadcast of early Nanci Griffith over at Big O this morning and extensive interviews too . . . . . . . .
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Michael Hall, texasmonthly.com:
In the mid-seventies Nanci Griffith began playing at various Austin clubs - including the Hole in the Wall (where she had a regular Sunday night slot in 1975 and 1976), the Alamo Lounge, and emmajoe’s - as part of a growing scene that included Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Lucinda Williams. “She was the first accomplished person to play the Hole in the Wall,” says Doug Cugini, who owned the noisy UT-area club back then. “Lots of people got up there with a guitar. It’s hard to get the attention of that room. She got the attention of that room.”
Even before releasing her debut, 1978’s There’s a Light Beyond These Woods, Griffith hit the road, touring by herself and with a band, doing her own booking and publicity, playing small clubs and college radio stations. She was a folkie but she was no softie, and the hard work began to pay off. Fans heard the yearning in her voice, identified with her characters, and loved her literate songs about Texas; critics gushed. In 1985 she recorded her first Austin City Limits. Wearing red shoes with white socks, she looked kind of like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Lyle Lovett sang backup. Between songs she spoke in a hushed little-girl voice, then fell into a wobbly twang, then became meek again - sometimes in the space of one story. The rapt audience didn’t seem to mind.
[Note: Nanci Griffith passed away in August 2021. She was 68.]
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Nanci Griffith - Folkscene Hollywood USA 1983 KPFK Studio A - Big O
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