Nanci Griffith: Seguin’s Folk Poet
July 6
Today is the birthday of Nanci Griffith. She would be 83 today.
Nanci Caroline Griffith was born in Seguin, Texas on July 6, 1943. She grew up in Austin, where she played the coffeehouse circuit while studying education at the University of Texas. She was singing her own songs before she was out of high school — detailed, narrative songs about Texas people and Texas places that didn’t quite fit any category radio had invented. She called her music “folkabilly.” Nobody argued.
The Songs That Outlasted the Charts
Griffith signed with MCA in the mid-1980s and made records that were too country for folk radio and too folk for country radio. “From a Distance” was one of her compositions — Bette Midler took it to No. 1 in 1990. Griffith won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994 for Other Voices, Other Rooms — an album of covers that was also a statement about the folk tradition she had dedicated her life to. She died August 13, 2021, in Nashville. The songs she wrote about Texas haunt you for days. Learn more on Wikipedia.