Just chalk this off as one of those years…. (Blue Roses From The Moons - Nanci Griffith)

Member Name: lynn_bex

Product:	Blue Roses From The Moons - Nanci Griffith
Date:	01/01/03 (288 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful,, Force for good

Disadvantages: None

Having been off-line for several months, my home computer has recently been repaired…

So, all things considered, I’d like to welcome 2003 with a little something from the wonderful Nanci Griffith and, ever the optimist, I wish you a healthy, happy and [possibly against all odds,] peaceful New Year.

As I have said elsewhere, not only is Nanci Griffith an incredibly talented singer/songwriter, but she is also a fearless opponent of all manner of injustice in this world of ours. Texas born, she has become an international treasure.

This album, “Blue Roses From The Moons” was recorded as a live studio session in 1997, and it remains a favourite of mine…

(1) Everything’s Coming Up Roses (Nanci Griffith/Matthew Ryan)

Featuring Nanci Griffith on vocals, with her backing group, the Blue Moon Orchestra, (the band that named itself after Nanci’s third album, “Once in a Very Blue Moon,”) this is a philosophical but beautifully up-beat and optimistic song about the human condition.

“This life is filled with wonder/This life is full of days not spent…

…I’ve got a heart bent on confusion/I’m punch drunk straight half the time…

Oh, but everything is comin’ up roses/And when I’m pushin’ up daisies…
They’ll want roses anyway/Oh and everything’s comin’ up roses
It’s comin’ up roses every day…”

Hey, hey! - We’re still here, aren’t we? (Or should that be, “Ain’t we?”!!!)

(2) Two For the Road (Nanci Griffith)

This is beautiful, featuring Nanci and her band with the addition of strings and horn, it’s an “almost love song” and tells of the unbreakable bond between two people who have criss-crossed this world.

“You held my hand/As we raced along the buffalo bay

ou/Chasing the tail of this globe…/…Two for the road…

We’re two of a kind, heart/Closing in the distances…
We’ve been blessed with dreaming…
Two for the road”

(3) Wouldn’t That Be Fine (Nanci Griffith)

Here’s an anthem to lost love that might just break your heart…

“If you could stand behind my eyes for just one day/Could you see my heart beside you?

If you knew my love had never flown away.. / …If you could hold me now and brace these broken shoulders…

…If I could roll these dice and finally loose my anger/Wouldn’t that be love…Wouldn’t that be roses… …Wouldn’t that be fine?”

[Sigh….]

(4) Battlefield (Nick Lowe/Paul Carrack)

This might blow your socks off, should you be unaware of Nanci’s wide range!

Written by Nick Lowe and Paul Carrack, this version of “Battlefield” is backed by The Crickets [Sonny Curtis, J I Allison and Joe B Maudlin] and Darius Rucker [of Hootie and the Blowfish]

“I live on a battlefield/Surrounded by the ruins of a love we built…..

…My new home is a shell-hole/Filled with tears and muddy water…”

OUCH!

(5) Saint Teresa of Avila (Nanci Griffith/Margaret Mary Graham/Mikki Griffith)

A sweet requiem,

The cover note tells that this was written “…In memory of our Sister Teresa… …We Understand.”

Shhhh…. (We’ll tiptoe to the next track….)

(6) Gulf Coast Highway (Nanci Griffith/James Hooker/Danny Flowers)

A duet with Darius Rucker, this is another love story, but this time featuring working people of the kind that can be found anywhere in the world…

“Gulf Coast Highway/He worked the rails, he worked the rice fields..




He worked the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico…

…The only thing we’ve ever owned/Is this old house here by the road…

..The seasons change, the jobs would come …The flowers fade…

…And when we die we say we’ll catch some blackbird’s wings/And we will fly away to heaven/Come some sweet blue bonnet spring…”

Ahhh… Another song to break your heart, should it catch you off guard!

(7) I Fought the Law (Sonny Curtis)

And here we have something to break the spell!

Boom, boom, boom!

Nanci is on record as saying that, as a girl, it was her ambition to be a Cricket when she grew up… Here she gets her wish as she duets with the legendry Sonny Curtis with Joe Maudlin on bass and Jerry Allison adding his unmistakable drum backing…

“Breaking rocks in the hot sun/I fought the law and the law won…”

WONDERFUL!

[Incidentally, the Crickets are not THAT old… Being only slightly older than such “youngsters” as Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Cliff Richard!]

(8) Not My Way Home (Nanci Griffith)

Another sweet song, of an old, dead love.

“I know you believe in miracles/That this love will come back around…

I know your kiss is sweeter/Than the dust that this love has become…

I don’t intend to sound ungrateful/You’ve given love when I had none…

…I know… it is not my way home…”

(9) Is This All There Is? (Nanci Griffith/Tom Littlefield)

Here we have one last attempt to breathe life into a lost love.

“I have travelled far to be sitting here with you/And I will leave this place alone…

Is this all there is?/I wanted so much more…”

Hmmm… Sad…


10) Ma
ybe Tomorrow (Nanci Griffith/Harlan Howard)

This was the track that persuaded me to write this opinion for the New Year of 2003…

Co-written with Harlan Howard, who died early in 2002 and was arguably the greatest country songwriter of the 20th Century, this is just the kind of song to greet any fresh start.

Had this been written by UK based writers, it could easily be described as a “pub song” – and would be well received in any pub as closing time approached!

It’s got everything that I need, as midnight approaches: Nanci Griffith at her most raucous, with Sonny Curtis joining her on vocals, Jerry Allison’s thumping drum-beat and a fiendishly honky-tonk piano:

“I will find somebody new/Maybe tomorrow/I will stop this missing you/Maybe tomorrow/Time’s the healer… Time’s the key/So all the wise folks say/Oh, maybe tomorrow/But not today…

There’s a gorgeous morning in my future/There are smiles waiting here behind the tears/Once again I’ll be a friend worth having/And just chalk this off as one of those years…”

Hooray – and here’s to the new year!

(11) Waiting for Love (Nanci Griffith)

There is one line in this song that has always tugged at my heart strings, and seems more meaningful as I sit down to write this review…

“Life is full of finer things/They’re lost and found in the dark/It’s the dog by the highway, who said “Going my way?”/Now he lives in your own backyard/He was waiting for love/You came along and fit the part…”

One of our family dogs died on Saturday, 28 December 2002… He’d taken a roundabout route, before ending his days with my mother and aunt in South London, where he certainly found love – and spent the best two years of his life…

“Everyone I know/From my dust bo
wl to the city/Is waiting for love/To start another day…”

(12) I’ll Move Along (Nanci Griffith/Tom Littlefield)

Sometimes, we just have to give it up as a bad job…

“This flesh and bone ain’t much protection/For an honest heart like mine..

…I’ll move along….

I don’t say much, I was born to listen/Tell me now, did I hear you wrong?/This was love, not the inquisition…

You passed me by/Now you’re in my way/I’ll move along one day…

(13) Morning Train (Suzy Elkins/Robert Field)

Here we have a fresh start:

“There’s a morning train/Leaving for New Orleans…

…So Goodbye Lover, I’m goin’ under cover…

…Gonna skip my ring across the Mississippi River/When it sinks, I won’t feel a thing…”

-That’ll teach him!

(14) She Ain’t Going Nowhere (Guy Clark)

Guy Clark must be one of the most of the under-rated singer/songwriters of our age, and this is a terrific “leaving song”:

“She ain’t goin’ nowhere/She’s just leavin’/She ain’t goin’ nowhere she can’t breathe in/She ain’t goin’ home and that’s for sure…

The wind had a way with her hair/And the blues had a way with her smile/And she had a way of her own/Like prisoners have a way with a file…”

Hallelujah! - Let’s keeps the faith!

-Happy New Year, everyone.

Summary: