Nanci Griffith Album: “Hearts in Mind”

I think the album is fantastic. I think Simple Life, Beautiful, Before, Heart of Indochine, Old Hanoi, Big Blue Ball of War, Rise to the Occasion, and Our Very Own rank right up there with the best stuff she's ever done. I'm not so fond of Mountain of Sorrow and am indifferent to Angels, but then she didn't write them. And the rest is pretty darn good. I like the fact that each song has it's own sound and, as usual, the lyrics are like good literature. In "Heart of Indochine," I can see her sitting in the cafe with her "friend Bobby Mullen." It brings tears to my eyes when she wonders if "he walks in his dreams."

As to repeating old themes, I don't think that we can be reminded too often that war brings nothing but misery, and often isn't necessary and solves nothing. And surely, we cannot hear too often how restorative and uplifting love can be.

As far as all of Nanci's best work being behind her, I couldn't disagree more. I absolutely did not like "Other Voices Too" and could even say I HATED most of "Blue Roses from the Moon." However, I think "Winter Marquee" and "Clock Without Hands" are phenomenal albums. I play both all of the time. To me, along with "Flyer" and "Other Voices Other Rooms," they are desert island discs.

I have all of Nanci Griffith's CD's and this one was just a little too slow for me. The tracks were mostly very mellow and retrospective, and I miss Nanci's energy.

It's a bit country, a bit folk and a bit of pop but the best thing going for it is the quality of the voice and the singing of the songs. The songs themselves are nothing to brag about. There is nothing wrong with them but they are to my mind "bulk items". By that I mean the songs used to flesh out the single hit on an album. In this case, though, that is all there is.

That being said, she is a good singer and has some fine singing guests. Her musicians are good too. Its just the songs that are wanting.

Nanci Griffith walks a find line on her politically oriented "Hearts in Mind." She is, like so many entertainers, struck by the events of and since 9/11, and she intertwines her songs about "every soldier and every civilian lost to the horrors of war" (the album's dedication) with songs about the joy of ongoing life. Instead of throwing the gauntlet of Iraq center stage, she colors with the memories of Viet Nam. It gets the point across during "Heart Of Indochine" in a subtle manner. As does the CD opener, "Simple Life."

"I don't want your wars to take my children,

I want a simple life while I am here."

Julie Gold's "Mountain of Sorrow" is just as remarkably subtle, as Gold reflects on waking up in New York City September 11th, 2001 to knocking at her door of a grief stricken neighbor. "Easy come, easy go...anything but easy, though." Griffith delivers the line as she once did for Gold's call for peace, "From A Distance." (Funny how it's another song for peace written under another Bush Gulf conflict.)

"Hearts in Mind" is balanced by several songs dealing with family and pride. "Beautiful" is Nanci's tribute to her grandfather and finds her indulging in some jazzy singing. Jimmy Buffet chimes in on the silly "I Love This Town" (why wasn't this a hit?) to add some levity, and old friend Mac MacAnally joins Nanci on "Rise To The Occasion." Both the serious and the cheery roll off the CD at an easy pace. If you are a fan of Nanci's or the likes of Patty Griffin, Casey Chambers of The Dixie Chicks, you'll find a lot to enjoy with Nanci's "Hearts In Mind."

Somewhere in the late 90's, Nanci Griffith began getting on my nerves. Like, seriously getting on my nerves. Like, fingernails on chalkboards. After nearly twenty years of being a fan, I was able to hear what prompted my college roommate's girlfriend Meg to shudder in 1988: "That is the most irritating voice I have ever heard." But Meg was a chain-smoking illiterate whose only talent was being able to belch the alphabet, so what did she know? By the second installment of Griffith's Other Voices masterpiece, on that Trip Back To Bountiful, her quirky inflections and oddball Texan drawl began bordering on the absurd. And I started hearing what Meg had heard lo those many years ago. I snored through Dust Bowl Symphony. Blue Roses From The Moon so disinterested me that I never even bought it; it remains the only Nanci Griffith title not to grace my shelves. I only bought the subsequent Clock Without Hands for Linda Ronstadt's guest appearance (and noted that label-mate Ronstadt's name was misspelled twice in the album notes). Kate Campbell would become my neo-folkie-with-literary-pretensions of choice.

It took a long time for me to get around to buying Hearts In Mind, and while it doesn't offer up the same magic as her best MCA albums or the underappreciated Flyer, her ruminations on war are entirely consistent with the plain-spoken pacifist who, remember, was the first to record From A Distance and whose idealism gave us It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go. In picaresque tunes such as Old Hanoi and Heart of Indochine, Griffith continues to make peace with the Vietnam era, but it's clear she's also talking about Iraq. "I don't want your wars to take my children/I want a simple life while I'm here," she sings in the track that opens the album. But a simple life is not so easy to come by in the post-9/11 world, as Julie Gold's Mountain of Sorrow attests. Sure, there are signs of levity along the way, such as some ad lib scat singing at the tail end of Beautiful, where Nanci unleashes her inner Bessie Smith (either that or perhaps SHE, like Meg, had learned to belch the alphabet). And let's not forget the spirited Jimmy Buffett duet, I Love This Town. But by the time we get to track 13, Big Blue Ball of War, one wonders if a simple life is even viable anymore.

Regrettably, however, for all it has going for it, Hearts In Mind is not a Nanci Griffith album I'll return to with much frequency. Not like One Fair Summer Evening (superb) or Winter Marquee (ditto), not like Other Voices... (desert island disc), not like Storms. The songs she wrote are unquestionably informed by her years working with the Campaign for a Landmine Free World as well as other veterans' groups and progressive organizations, and while she succeeds at tackling political writing without coming off as preachy, there is clunkiness (references to Graham Greene?) that remains difficult for my ears to get around.