Nanci Griffith Album: “Winter Marquee”

If you have to choose between the Cd, and the DVD, Get the DVD. The DVD has I believe 5 extra songs, and is the full concert. The CD has all the in between song chatter cut out, and the audience applause between songs seems to be turned down. This almost sounds like a studio recording. I have both versions, and I am much happier with the DVD version. But of course any Nanci Griffith music is beautiful. I just wanted a true live feeling.

This disc adds little new to Nanci Griffith's corpus. Chances are you've already heard most of these songs. But there's a certain spark in live folk and country that makes this CD eminently worth listening to.

Recorded (the liner notes don't say where) on the "Clock Without Hands" tour, this CD features both recent and older. It brings tunes like "Listen to the Radio" back into play, and it also allows her to try on the music of others. She covers classic songwriters like Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan, and current major names like John Prine and the late Townes Van Zandt.

Griffith is one of those gifted musicians, rare in this day of teen-pop and boy bands, who sounds as good live as in the studio. It's a joy to listen to her swing through the tracks, plainly loving making music as much as we love listening. She's backed by a skilled band who fill out her sound, and they really help her sound good.

This is the kind of CD you can stick in the player and listen to over and over again. I have, in fact, done so. I recommend you do the same.

Nanci has always excelled in her live performances, connecting with each audience in a way that seems impossibly intimate, yet with a winsome self-affacement that bowls them over every time. Although recent albums -- both studio and live -- have slowly crept towards a by-rote professionalism, this concert album is a decisive return to form, showcasing all that is best about Griffith's live persona. Its acoustic roots run deep; the tinkling piano riffs are held in check, her vocals are impassioned and direct. After gliding through some of her best love songs, Griffith gets a little bogged down in earnest folkie political material -- maybe a song or two too many in that direction, but you do get that she's really sincere about this stuff. Anyone who's seen her live will be enchanted by this new album; it really conveys that certain something that sets Nanci above the crowd. Recommended!

What a great concert that must have been. I have seen Nanci Griffith live three times and each time has been magical. That feeling comes through in this CD. On first listening to this CD, I missed the stories that are so much a part of her concerts. However, now that I have listened to the CD non-stop for a week, I must say I love just having the music. Nevertheless, I will be buying the DVD to get the stories.

Although a lot of these songs are songs that she has recorded before, she brings something new to each version. One of my favorite songs, "Boots of Spanish Leather," is unbelievably beautiful on this CD. It starts out with just Nanci and the guitar and builds slowly to a crescendo of voices and instruments. "There's a Light Beyond These Woods," is even more poignant than before now that Nanci is older and wiser. Although the whole album is fantastic, I would buy it just for those two songs.

Get this album!!!

I have listened to the Marquee CD, and I fell in love...Again. How can you not? She is once again, amazing. However, I am delighted in knowing there is a DVD as well. For some reason, I never even looked. I just wanted the music. But after reading all the reviews, I saw that there is a DVD out there, and I will go back and get it. She is amazing, she is wonderful, she is timeless and her music will live on for ages. I just wish I could see her in concert, but I am afraid she would leave me breathless...