Who Was Nanci Griffith? Grammy-Winning Singer From Texas

Nanci Griffith, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter from Texas died on August 13. She was 68-years-old.

Gold Mountain Entertainment, her management company confirmed the news of her demise on Friday. The cause of her death is yet to be known. The company in its statement said that Griffith had wished that no further statement or press releases should happen for a week after her death.

Suzy Bogguss, a country singer, who sang Outbound Plane written by Nanci Griffith posted a tribute in her name.

“I feel blessed to have many memories of our times together along with most everything she ever recorded. I’m going to spend the day revelling in the articulate masterful legacy she’s left us”

Darius Rucker also posted a tribute on Twitter calling Griffith one of his idols and the reason why he moved to Nashville. He wrote, "Singing with her was my favorite things to do.”

Who Was Nanci Griffith?

• First and foremost, Griffith was a daughter of farmers and much of her music was dedicated to disadvantaged farmers.
• As a folk singer-songwriter, she also helped to elevate the careers of other artists such as Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett and others.
• Her songwriting in popular tracks such as Love at the Five and Dime are famous for how they represent the South of the USA.
• As she belonged to Texas, her accent and her lyrics were a reflection of that. The singer had made songs of Dust Bowl farmers and Woolworth general stores, basically how empty the stores had become.
• Her song version of From a Distance had become widely popular in the 1980s much before Bette Midler released her own track on the same.
• She won a Grammy award for her album Other Voices, Other Rooms in 1993. The album was called the best contemporary folk album of the time.
• In the said album, Griffith sang numbers with John Prine, Guy Clark, Harris.
• Griffith won the Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award from the Americana Music Association in 2008.
• Her songs like It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go were derived from anti-racist sentiments. They also put the spotlight on economic hardships faced by rural farmers in 1980s America. One such song is Trouble in the Fields.
• In 1990, Nanci Griffith told Los Angeles Times that she wrote those songs as an ode to her family who were farmers in Texas during Great Depression.