Review: Nanci Griffith at The Sage Gateshead

Feb 10 2010 by Ron Clarke

NANCI Griffith is a safe bet. When the Texan singer is in town you always know what you are going to get and the tried and tested formula is generally a guaranteed success.

Here again we had the usual mix of insight, humour and emotion as she seemed to enjoy herself just as much as the audience by trawling through her impressive back catalogue, with the addition of some newer material.

The scene for a highly entertaining evening was set right from the start with an opening Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, quickly followed by the haunting classic From a Distance, which is still up there as one of the most powerful tributes to the futility of conflict ever written.

From then on it just seemed to run smoothly and on cue, with some delightful renditions of her most recent work.

This included The Loving Kind, a moving tale about a mixed raced couple who were jailed in the USA when they married in 1958.

It was not all serious, as perfectly illustrated by the jaunty Tequila After Midnight and, finally, the marvellous sing-along outburst of Pete Seeger’s If I had a Hammer.

Probably a safe bet to say no one was disappointed.