Nanci Griffith – The Loving Kind – Rounder 613275, 42:23 ****:
(Nanci Griffith – vocals, guitar; Pat McInerney – drums, percussion, producer; Thomm Jutz – guitar, producer; Matt McKenzie – bass; Barry Walsh – keyboards; Shad Cobb – fiddle; Fats Kaplin – pedal steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle)
Country/folk singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith has been a paradox most of her career. The Texan’s little-girl soprano voice has suggested naivete or innocence, yet she has a literate and sophisticated expertise, with lyrics that can be pointedly on-target, whether she is singing about romance at the local five and dime store or is passionately pleading for peace and understanding. Over the decades, Griffith’s voice has deepened somewhat, and she has tried her hand at torch songs and Irish folk. But on her 19th release, The Loving Kind, Griffith returns to her forte, writing and performing Americana material that covers the gamut from optimism to equality, and from quiet determination to mannered indignation.
The Loving Kind is a treat for long-term fans, because the album is the first since 2005 that blends Griffith’s signature sound with original material and contemporary covers, tapping into her country and folk roots, and using a stellar backing band which gives Griffith’s text immediacy and authority.
The 13 pieces are a mix of sociopolitical concerns and personal stories, and are balanced between sober resolve and wryly-spun episodes. Griffith starts with the fiddle-flavored country title track, which finds Griffith revisiting the 1967 landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which ended the US ban on interracial marriage. Griffith retells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and an African-American woman, who were forced to leave Virginia under threat of arrest because of the state’s Jim Crow law that barred wedlock between different races. Griffith’s tender voice is matched with Shad Cobb’s high fiddle, Barry Walsh’s melodic piano, and Fats Kaplin’s underlying pedal steel guitar.
That’s followed by Gale Trippsmith’s folk-pop "Money Changes Everything," a chipper-toned tune that examines greed, with a message that seems more pertinent each day, as companies file for bankruptcy, families lose their homes, workers are laid off, and state economies falter. Another current-events missive is hope-brimmed anthem "Across America," an upbeat country-pop sonnet to the hope many Americans have sensed during a time of new leadership and political transition. Griffith sings about everyday heroes she encountered on the road, how she "Spoke to folks in New Orleans with hammers in their hands," and her conversation with "A waitress in Missouri who wants her own health plan." Griffith also takes pot shots at a former White House occupant, in the Bush-whacking "Still Life." The country-pickled cut sums up Griffith’s feelings over the past eight years about her fellow Texan, "You need to change/You don’t know how/Your life could use a reformation/If you could see you/As I see you now/I know you’d change the situation."
The album’s most tough-minded moment is "Not Innocent Enough," a Dylan-esque account of a corruption of justice. The first-person history lesson profiles Philip Workman, convicted in 1981 of killing a Memphis police officer, and who was executed in 2007 by the state of Tennessee despite fresh evidence that could have proved his innocence. The heartfelt proclamation against the death penalty, which progresses from the robbery attempt to the policeman’s death and inescapably to the lethal injection, includes pal and musician John Prine, who lends his deep voice to the ending chorus.
Griffith is one of those singular songwriters who can pen both political as well as personal music. On The Loving Kind, Griffith reveals her intimate side with an ode to both a mentor and a lost family member ("Up Against the Rain"), revises a relationship drama about endearing love ("One of These Days"), and learns to let go ("Things I Don’t Need"). The country ballad "Up Against the Rain," co-written with longtime collaborator Charley Stefl, is a homage to songwriter Townes Van Zandt, who encouraged Griffith and was Stefl’s best friend. While Griffith paints a portrait of a man who never gives up his struggles, she also turns the profile into a doubled tribute to both Townes and Griffith’s beloved step-father, who passed away shortly before Griffith went into the studio. On the autobiographical "Sing," a pop-tinted mainstream number that could easily be a hit for Kathy Mattea or Suzy Bogguss, Griffith reminisces about listening to late-night radio and discovering her love for music at an early age. She performs another charming effort on the James Taylor-ish "Things I Don’t Need," which is highlighted by Walsh’s electric piano, and some finely etched fiddle. The harmonically rich travelogue "One Of These Days" should be familiar to fans, since it is a re-recording of a Griffith composition originally released on her 1986 undertaking The Last Of The True Believers.
Some people jest that in country music, listeners can count on three cliched themes: songs about dogs, drinking and cheating. Griffith does not trade in trite tendencies, however, she does in fact close The Living Kind with two alcohol-imbued tunes. During Dee Moeller’s honky tonk souvenir "Tequila After Midnight," Griffith notes that the intoxicating elixir will "Help you feel so warm/Makes you feel good/When you don’t" – in other words, sometimes someone wants to forget to get on with life. On Edwina Hayes’ likeminded, meditative "Pour Me a Drink," Griffith asks for one more shot of liquor before closing time.
On the technical side, producers Pat McInerney and Thomm Jutz deftly position Griffith’s soft voice to the fore and warmly wrap her distinctive style and careful phrasing with sympathetically placed acoustic guitars, and adroit fiddle, pedal steel guitar and piano. While The Loving Kind is not on par with Griffith’s Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms, nevertheless it as effective and engaging as eighties outings such as Lone Star State of Mind or Little Love Affairs.
TrackList:
1. The Loving Kind
2. Money Changes Everything
3. One of These Days
4. Up Against the Rain
5. Cotton
6. Not Innocent Enough
7. Across America
8. Party Girl
9. Sing
10. Things I Don’t Need
11. Still Life
12. Tequila After Midnight
13. Pour Me a Drink
— Doug Simpson
