Disco de Nanci Griffith: “Last of the True Believers”

I have been a Nanci fan for almost 15 years and this is my all time favorite CD. Here Nanci sings some of her best written songs ever as well as a few by selected artists such as Eric Taylor and Bill Stains. The Blue Moon Orchestra was better back then befor they became "synthesized". Just good pure folk-a-billy music coming from one of the most honest singer/songwriters of our time. A must for your collection!

I second all the other reviewers. To me, I find that this album puts Nancy Griffith in an exclusive class among the very finest of songwriters of our time. "Ponchartrain" does something few writers can do: write eloquently about the love of place, and to do it with melody that carries the words as freely as the spirit in those words. I WANT to see Lake Ponchartrain someday because of this song. There is so much going on in these lyrics... setting the scene with that other French-American locale, Montreal, and, like a lover who finds absence makes the heart grow fonder, realizes she must go back. In short, a simple sounding tune that is layered with a lot more than meets the ear initially. "Love's Found A Shoulder", is like diamond-cutting-- so exact in word choice that that the reult is so beautiful you cant really see the effort that went into it. Some day, as others have said, I really hope this writer gets a wider respect. Those of us who have found Nancy Griffith's songs know already that we have a found a true musical artist. I simply don't know of a better songwriter, regardless of genre or gender.

I have now bought eleven of Nanci Griffith's recordings including this one. This is a Must Have along with "Blue Roses" and "Storms". Nanci Griffith sounds outstanding when she sings Looking For the Time and Banks of the Ponchatrain. I swear by all the stars in the sky that I will see her in concert one day. I want so very much to meet her.--Robert Metz

It may sound sappy, but Ms. Griffith changed my life with this album, as it led me to my wife (another NG fan) and a pretty swell life. The songs are beautiful, funny, and sometimes true stories fetchingly sung with the delightful Ms. G. with her sweet and occaisionally raucous Texas voice. I love all her stuff, but this one may be her best.

I, uhm, normally listen to Electronica. Really. No, really- Moby, Everything But The Girl, BT. Ska, too. Oh, uhm, ska- think of it as high-speed reggae might sound. So I'm having a little challenge with expressing myself here...

Superlatives like "Best Of The Best" don't fit this album or this artist; they don't seem to live up to the performance. I thought maybe "The Best's Best"- the difference is subtle, but too subtle, it's still too... superlative. No, perhaps just "Best".

Same problem with genres. Griffith isn't bluegrass, or country, or Americana even. She doesn't fit into any single genre, and yet the more genres listed to describe her the more limiting they become. "Newgrass" works, maybe, but implies bluegrass, and she easily (and unconsciously) transcends that.

I discovered Griffith in 92 or 93, and was immediately captivated by the stories she weaves (at BPMs that best some techno music); her voice irritated me for about half a minute before becoming charming and endearing. But most of all I was hooked by her sincerity, and that was new too. "Sincerity" is usually capitalized (if not italicized), tends to ooze forth (Mariah?), and always repels me like a line of "Home Sweet Home" cut-out ducks on the wall. Griffith introduced me to lower-case-s sincerity, the kind that's real, not cloying but simple, and honest. Little "s" sincerity provides the foundation that lets her spin these tales of real everyday life in anywhere USA without spinning into a pit of affectation.

It's the little things here, really. Little things, like walking through town 'cause there's nothing else to do, or going to Woolworth's cause that's where there is to go; little things like reminiscing about seeing your first ever real live in person prostitute when you went up to the city last year. And remembering her sympathetically.

That's the miracle here, amidst an album about small town America comes the simple, unaffected tale of a prostitute, and it fits - you totally buy it. That's a miracle! Of course, anyone who can sing a song with "Pontchartrain" in the title at 180 BPM is a bit of a miracle anyway...

Superlatives? How's this: this album remains the biggest miracle yet from a lady who is, in and of herself, a miracle.

(And yep, that's a lower-case "m".)