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Still, it’s hard to resist her. It’s not just the mix of elfin beauty, Texas twang and perky delivery – the lady is a charmer, with a genial line in storytelling that is most perfectly captured, for this reviewer, on live versions of her rites-of-passage ballad Love at the Five and Dime.
She’s been one of the great unsung patrons of historic talent, too, bringing key figures from the past like Buddy Holly’s Crickets and folkie Dave Van Ronk into the studio and out on the road with her band, The Blue Moon Orchestra. And if there’s a suspicion that her success has been earned more by the personality conveyed in an edgy, wholly individual voice than by her music, there are worse routes to stardom.
The strongest song here, Hell No (I’m Not Alright), makes the point. Griffith hollers out the inarguable sentiment of its chorus with a relish that should attract future grumpy anthem-singers – and outflanks the sketchiness of the song in the process. Pacing is another of this short album’s strengths. There’s variety in its unfolding, with a brisk shot of energy two-thirds of the way through from a confident reading of Griffith’s 20-year-old Just Another Morning Here.
Not everything works, though. The Texan has always had a weakness for a sentimental ballad, and the set alternates tearjerkers from other writers with the more personal, confessional material of the album’s six new songs.
Recorded in Griffith’s Nashville home, the production is busy with tambourine rattles, bongo taps and pinging triangles. Downbeat words are buoyed up by light pop textures, leaning heavily for character on the fragile virtues of a voice that, while full of expression, is not designed for pop. Still ahead then, we must hope, is the record that will give that distinctive instrument an irresistible setting.
--Ninian Dunnett
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Customer Reviews
Nanci is known as a deeply confessional singer/songwriter and "Intersection" is another chapter in the art of baring her soul. In the title track she sings "I've had a hard life and I write it down". It is an intense but beautiful song with Pete Kennedy's delicately phrased organ reflecting her poignant reading of the lyrics.
Continuing to bare her soul "Bad Seed" is a reflection of her father's rejection of her: "Now that I've gone crazy/With no love of my father/Am I the bad seed he always said I would be?" but delivered with a surprising uptempo arrangement.
"Hell No, I'm Not Alright" captures the anger that she feels about the world: "Hell No, I'm not alright/And neither are you/And neither are we". But the surprising thing about this track is that she evokes the sound of another era, The Crickets. You would swear that you can hear the guitar of Sonny Curtis and the drums of Jerry Allison as she launches into a furious tirade.
Six of the songs on the album are covers so it's not entirely autobiographical but they do sit well with Nancy's own songs in reflecting the mood of the album. The enchanting "If I Could Fly" by the late Blaze Foley proclaims:
"I almost felt you touching me just now
I wish I knew which way to turn and go
I feel so good and then I feel so bad
I wonder what I ought to do"
and Nanci's crystalline voice and a haunting accompaniment of subdued organ, guitar and light percussion evoke an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and despair.
"Bethlehem Steel" deals with the closure of the iconic steelworks, as further evidence of America's decline and "Davey's Last Picture" is a sentimental tribute to a fireman who died in New York, 9/11.
But despite the sombre tone of the album it does close on a literal high with Nanci's spirited reading of Loretta Lynn's "High On A Mountain Top" : "High On A Mountain Top/We live, we love and we laugh a lot". Perhaps Nanci is glimpsing a better future.
Ultimately this is Nanci Griffiths at the top of her game with a passionate voice delivering a strong bunch of songs both musically and lyrically. Underpinning this is the multi talented Pete Kennedy playing an array of instruments including electric, acoustic, 12 string and slide guitar plus organ, ukelele and mandolin.
The parts fit seamlessly to create a whole that is a perfectly executed reflection upon the trials and tribulations of an imperfect world but with the promise of better things to come.
This album is no disappointment...loaded with songs from an experienced voice and observer of the human condition.
Just plain dandy.
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