Nanci Griffith-One Fair Summer Evening (1988)


 

Artist: Nanci Griffith

Title:  ONe Fair Summer Evening

Label: MCA Records

Format: CD

Cat #: MCD-42255

Year of Release: 1988

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US BMG Club Edition D 102825

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 9/3/21

Sell Price: $9.99

Discogs Last Sold: 8/16/21 $2.37

Low: $2.37

Median: $2.37

Average: $2.37

High: $2.37

Current low price: -

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 0

Have/Want: 13/4

Where Sold: Berwyn, IL

Time it took to sell: 10 years

Where and When Bought: BMG Music Club late 90's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B-

Sad To See It Go: No

"...listening to the popcorn machine go pop, pop, pop..."-Nanci Griffith

My teenage radio cohort at WICN noted the "pop, pop, pop" line in the intro of "Love At The Five And Dime" upon Nanci's passing a few weeks back.  That was also the first thing that went through my head when I heard she passed.  John decided to play that interminable track on our show at 4am one night in the late 80's, and sure enough my cassette recording of that show was played on multiple occasions, so I got to hear that intro over and over and over and over again.

At some point I decided to give Nanci another chance in a box of CD's from the BMG music club sometime in the 90's, filling holes in my collection.  For whatever reason, I realize now after listening a couple times why I have a problem with this record.

For a stripped down affair at her stomping grounds in Houston at the Anderson Fair, the piano accompaniment lends a little more syrup than I can tolerate.  It means nothing to that Nanci got to "From A Distance" before Bette Midler did, I just can't tolerate that song.  Even if it made a struggling artist into a pro as it did Julie Gold.

The better songs are when the bumpkin (well, Austin, natch) gets a taste of NYC as she does in "Looking For The Time (Workin' Girl)" where nobody has the time for her and then "Spin On A Red Brick Floor" the town brings the stupids out of her (in her own words).  The white man having his way in "Deadwood, South Dakota" seems more a subject casually observed than folk protester on the front lines on the Joan Baez scale.

It ain't the voice I have a problem with, that's solid next-gen Emmylou Harris born in the 50's. Maybe as good as any genre-wise from her era.

It's the material.



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