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Griffith's 'Torch' Burns Brightly

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By CURTIS ROSS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 29, 2007

Two shows hardly constitute a tour, so call Nanci Griffith's Sunshine State jaunt a working vacation.

"We're coming down to visit friends and get warm!" Griffith exclaims, speaking by telephone from her home in Nashville. Despite years of living in Tennessee, Griffith's Texas twang is as pronounced as ever.

The singer-songwriter will be backed by a small band for tonight's show in St. Petersburg and Saturday's in West Palm Beach.

The small group setting will give a different spin to selections from Griffith's latest album, 2006's "Ruby's Torch," which features lush string and horn arrangements.

The album, Griffith says, is made up of "songs that made me feel like I felt as a child riding along in the back seat of my parents' car, listening to Julie London, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra on the radio."

Instead of raiding the frequently overworked Great American Songbook, Griffith sought out "songs folks haven't generally heard, but classic pop songs nonetheless."

Three songs, including "Ruby's Arms" ("the most perfect piece of music and lyrics ever constructed," Griffith says), are by Tom Waits. "If These Walls Could Speak" is by Jimmy Webb. Charles Goodrum's "Bluer Than Blue," a 1978 hit for Michael Johnson, likely is the most well known.

Johnson played guitar on Griffith's remake of his hit, giving her one of what she calls two "double whammies" during the recording sessions. The other was brought about by Jay Patten, Crystal Gayle's music director, who played saxophone on the album. "Ruby's Torch" opens with "When I Dream," a country hit for Gayle in 1979.

"I'm sitting across the room from them while I'm singing those songs thinking, 'I wonder what he's thinking,'" Griffith says, laughing.

Griffith also included a couple of her own tunes: "Brave Companion of the Road," originally from her 1989 album, "Storms," and "Late Night Grande Hotel," the title track of her 1991 album and "the only song I've written on piano," Griffith says.

"They just fit," Griffith says of her songs. "'Brave Companion of the Road' was the perfect companion for Frank Christian's 'Drops From the Faucet,'" which Griffith calls "a great holiday song. It should be sung every New Year's Eve."

Other performers often turn to Griffith's songbook. Kathy Mattea had a country hit with Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime," as did Suzy Bogguss with "Outbound Plane."

But "Ruby's Torch" isn't the first time Griffith has turned interpreter. Her 1993 album, "Other Voices, Other Rooms," was an all-covers affair, as was its sequel, 1998's "Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful)."

For Griffith to take on another writer's tune, "it has to be a song that I say to myself, 'I wish I'd written that,'" she says.

Fans of Griffith's songwriting can take heart. She says she's been writing - which means her bathroom mirror must be getting crowded.

"I keep Post-its with me," Griffith says, describing her writing method. "When I think of a line, I write it down on one and stick it up on my bathroom mirror."

Griffith was hoping to write songs for a proposed rockabilly album with The Crickets, but current events are getting in her way.

"I've been writing pretty belligerent stuff. It's all coming out political," Griffith says. "I'd hoped to do an album with The Crickets, to write a full-blown rockabilly album, but I've been off being politically angry."

ON TOUR

Nanci Griffith

WITH: Fort Pastor

WHEN: 8:30 p.m. today

WHERE: Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N., St. Petersburg; (727) 896-2276

COST: $30

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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