And she, by God, didn't want to live in Oklahoma!

March 28, 2018 9:18 PM

Folk country troubadour Nanci Griffith's 1988 seventh album, One Fair Summer Evening, is a live acoustic recording from 1988 at Anderson Fair, Houston, Texas [YT album, 45m, YT playlist]. It's one of the most engaging things ever, IMO. Side A: Once In A Very Blue Moon; Looking For the Time (Workin' Girl); Deadwood, South Dakota; More Than A Whisper; I Would Bring You Ireland; Roseville Fair

Side B: Workin' In Corners, Trouble In The Fields, The Wing And The Wheel, From A Distance, Love At The Five And Dime, Spin On A Red Brick Floor

A previous Nanci Griffith (and others) post by me, now link rotted, currently working link for those interested.

posted by hippybear (15 comments total)

Back in the late 70's when I was in high school, I was a regular customer at Anderson Fair. I saw Shake Russell, Lyle Lovett and many other Houston folkies. I even did a feature about it for the school paper. There is even a documentary about it called "For the Sake of the Song: The Story of Anderson Fair". I'm glad to see it's still around. Definitely worth a look if you are in Houston.

In the early 80's, I moved up to Austin and began working at a local restaurant called The Omelettry (before it moved from Burnet Rd). I think Nancy worked at the nearby School for the Deaf and would bring the students in while she had a cup of coffee. We had lots of Austin musicians come in around while I was there. The nicest was Walter Hyatt from Uncle Walt's Band (one of my favorites).

Good times.
posted by jabo at 9:44 PM on March 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Thanks, hippybear! She’s such a treasure... every time I hear these songs, I’m right back in them like they’ve never stopped playing, you know?
posted by pt68 at 9:54 PM on March 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Hippbear, you are doing the Lord’s work brother.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:51 PM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

First saw her on Austin City Limits. She's an amazing songwriter.
posted by Beholder at 1:38 AM on March 29, 2018

In her earlier years she was much underrated as a live act. She had a wonderfully dry Texas sense of humor.
posted by texorama at 2:31 AM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I saw her live some time in the mid 90s (I think with Lyle Lovatt but I may be combining two things at the same venue) and she was wonderful. And indeed very funny!

Thank you for this hippybear.
posted by Catseye at 3:14 AM on March 29, 2018

I first saw her live in Austin, TX at the Paramount Theater in 1995. I’m pretty sure that concert was in support of “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” I was on a business trip with a co-worker and looking for something to do while we were in town and came across the concert almost by accident. I made him go, too. I like to think he is grateful for that. It was one of those magical homecoming shows where everybody knew all the words.

At the time I didn’t know her work well and am embarrassed to admit something about that show: I’m pretty sure that either James Hooker or Danny Flowers played that show cause I I remember her introducing them as a co-author of Gulf Coast Highway, which I think is one of the prettiest songs I ever heard.
posted by grimjeer at 4:52 AM on March 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ever notice how on almost every album cover she is pictured with a book in her hands?
posted by elizilla at 5:07 AM on March 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

How is it possible that this album is 30 years old?

Dang.
posted by allthinky at 8:16 AM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I first saw her live in Austin, TX at the Paramount Theater in 1995.

I was also at that show! (And I think it was James Hooker. I also remember her talking about John Prine recently having become a father, and how she pictured the baby with a little mustache.)
posted by mudpuppie at 10:28 AM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was at that show! I was a regular at Anderson Fair until moved up to DFW in 2002. Nancy once served me champaign at a Lyle Lovett New Year's Eve show where she was a special guest. Ah, happy days!
posted by Grumpy old geek at 11:22 AM on March 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

I listened to this obsessively during grad school. I'm pretty jealous of grumpy old geek.
posted by waytoomuchcoffee at 12:48 PM on March 29, 2018

I had one of those friends with a huge CD collection and a stellar audio setup and no regard for what his friends might want to listen to, only what he thought they should be listening to. Nanci Griffith was one of the infinitely better obsessions he developed and I ended up buying several CDs myself. We also saw her play at Birmingham Town Hall sometime in the early 1990s I would think. Oddly enough, I always somehow associate her with Michelle Shocked, as that was another artist on heavy rotation at Friend's house and was someone we also saw a couple of times live at roughly the same sort of time (at least in my timey-wimey version of things). Only one of these two artists, as far as I am aware, has latterly become a raving homophobe / extreme religious person; didn't see that coming from beside the Texas campfire. And yes, Nanci Griffith was drolly funny when we saw her.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 4:09 PM on March 29, 2018

Once In a Very Blue Moon is my favorite Nanci Griffith song. Ford Econoline is #2.
posted by Craig Stuntz at 8:31 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

She just gets better, doesn't she?
If These Walls Could Speak

Bonus: Transatlantic Sessions
Boots of Spanish Leather
Trouble in the Fields, Maura O'Connell and Nanci Griffith
posted by TrishaU at 12:36 AM on March 31, 2018