Ruby's Torch

Performer: Nanci Griffith
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Michael Johnson (acoustic guitar); Larry Paxton (electric guitar, acoustic bass); Mary Kathryn Vanosdale, Connie Ellisor, David Angell (violin); Monisa Angell (viola); John Catchings, Anthony LaMarchina (cello); James Hooker (piano, organ); Pat McLnerney (drums, percussion); Rick Lonow (drum). Where most singer-songwriters making an album of torch songs would stick with the usual suspects--"One More for the Road" or "As Time Goes By," perhaps--Nanci Griffith has made a career out of rarely doing what's expected. As a result, RUBY'S TORCH, her album of jazzy, lovelorn numbers, features not only startlingly apt reinterpretations of two of her own songs, "Late Night Grande Hotel" and "Brave Companion of the Road," but also unexpected choices from songwriters as diverse as Tom Waits (three of his songs, in fact) and Jimmy Webb. Griffith also extracts something new and personal from the overplayed soft-rock hit "Bluer Than Blue," a sappy late-1970s charter for one-hit-wonder Michael Johnson. This lovely collection even checks in with the requisite Sinatra nod, a fine version of "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning."

Q (p.145) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Typically, she's innovative in her song selection..." JazzTimes (p.73) - "45 minutes of gorgeously rendered torch singing....[With] profoundly beautiful reworkings of two of her finest compositions." No Depression (p.84) - "She finds startling dimension in the AM radio chestnut 'Bluer Than Blue'..."

Nanci Griffith has been a shining light in the American roots music community since the 1980s. Considered the female equivalent of maverick singer-songwriters such as Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam, Griffith made several stellar albums that blended country, folk, and twangy rockabilly (she's an avowed Buddy Holly & the Crickets fan) into a sound distinctly her own. The Texas native recorded two albums of cover songs that made clear her influences extended well beyond the Lone Star state, and in 2007 she released RUBY'S TORCH, an album of pop standards and ballads that further extended her grasp on vintage American music.

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