He did “Watching Joey Glow” at the performance I saw. Hysterical!
I need to pull up some videos of Nanci Griffith and Iris Dement for my daughters. Much better, musically, than Taylor Swift and some other performers they like. Taylor Swift is a beautiful girl and a clever songwriter, for her audience, but she’s a dreadful example as a vocalist.
Kinda makes you wonder if they think vocal chords are for knitting, crocheting, or making ties that bind something to something else.
*snart*
One of my favorite post-apocalyptic songs. I've performed it with guitar around many a campfire.
Nanci's politics don't agree with ours, and you DO NOT want her last four albums. She's odd - famous as a songwriter in the U.S., but a mega-star in the U.K. and a mega-mega-mega star in Ireland. She was chosen to narrate the Chieftan's video history and the Chieftan's are Ireland's national musical group.
She recorded From a Distance and went something like triple platinum with it in the UK two or three years before Bette Midler recorded it.
Nanci became most famous in the U.S. when she recorded two albums of folk music dedicated to her inspirations - Other Poets, Other Rooms (A Trip to Bountiful), and Other Voices, Too (A Return to Bountiful). Most of the songs are duets, but not necessarily with the people affiliated with the songs. She'll sing a duet with Arlo Guthrie and a Woody Guthrie song, but not necessarily the Arlo duet on the Woody song.
When she performed at Carnegie Hall, Nanci and the audience were surprised. She was suddenly joined onstage by (I forget the full list) people like Odetta, Bob Dylan, Arlo, Ian Tyson (of Ian & Sylvia), Guy Clark, and a host of others, who just held an impromptu hootenanny. Talk about getting your money's worth.
Iris has an odd - some people would say flat out weird - voice. She comes from a tiny, tiny holler in West Virginia. She's highly sought-after for duets, but her solo work is an acquired taste. Did I mention her voice? I don't agree with the theology, but try a song from her first album called "Let the Mystery Be." That's a live, living room-type version. Her voice is even stranger on the recording.
I'm not impartial on Nanci - I know her, slightly, and have for over 35 years now. So there's a little protectionism and self-interest in any recommendation I give. Just a full disclosure.
That was Iris Dement. And that answer is: Because that's Iris Dement's natural voice.
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. Now if that voice isn't distinctive, then I don't know what is. Right up there with Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson for "I know who that is . . ."