Blue Roses From the Moons

Nanci Griffith | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 25, 1997)
• Original Release Date: March 25, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002HOO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,198 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Nanci Griffith and Darius Rucker make a very odd couple. She's the skinny, angel-voiced troubadour of Texas coffeehouses, while he's the brawny, gruff-voiced leader of Hootie and the Blowfish. Yet they both benefit from their duet on Griffith's 1997 album, Blue Roses from the Moon. She rarely gets to hear her songs delivered with such soul-flavored power, and he rarely gets to sing something as well written as Griffith's loving description of the Texas landscape, "Gulf Coast Highway."

Not everything on Griffith's album is as well written as that 1988 song, and the first half of the album is dominated by new songs with unfocused lyrics and undernourished melodies. In the second half, however, the veteran singer-songwriter digs into the details of a relationship gone wrong and extracts tunes that dispel the misty wispiness of her worst work and provide the tough-minded clarity of her best. Songs such as "Not My Way Home" and "Is This All There Is" capture that awkward stage in a relationship when you're still fond of a person even as you realize the essential magic is gone. Best of all are the songs where Griffith throws off her sensitive introspection and attacks the music with the forcefulness of her new pal Rucker. She wrote the bouncy, tongue-in-cheek honky-tonk two-step, "Maybe Tomorrow," with her hero, Harlan Howard, and she gives an ex-lover a carefree kiss-off on the country-rocker, "Morning Train." On songs such as these, her energy is abetted by her producer, Don Gehman (John Mellencamp, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman) and by three of Buddy Holly's Crickets--guitarist Sonny Curtis, drummer Jerry Allison, and bassist Joe Mauldin--who play on half of the album's songs. --Geoffrey Himes

Product Description

Out of print for several years, the Nanci Griffith late nineties masterwork Blue Roses From The Moons receives the definitive remastering treatment as we welcome back this classic to the Friday Music label. Produced by Don Gehman (Tracy Chapman, John Cougar), this 1997 project captured the beautiful voice of Griffith with the strength of her own great tunes, as well as solid interpretations of Nick Lowe, Guy Clark and Sonny Curtis. Include Buddy Hollys Original Crickets on several key cuts including I Fought The Law and favorites like Two For The Road and Maybe Tomorrow (written with the late great Harlan Howard) A timeless classic is back and sounding sweeter than ever. The Definitive Remaster Series exclusively on Friday Music...................

TRACK LISTING.............

1-Everythings Coming Up Roses
2-Two For The Road
3-Wouldn t That Be Fine
4-Battlefield
5-Saint Teresa Of Avila
6-Gulf Coast Highway w/ Darius Rucker
7-I Fought The Law w/ Sonny Curtis
8-Not My Way Home
9-Is This All There Is
10-Maybe Tomorrow
11-Waiting For Love
12-Ill Move Along
13-Morning Train
14-She Ain t Goin Nowhere --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally some rock'n roll, January 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Roses From the Moons (Audio CD)

A rock'n'roll oriented album from Nanci, and the style suites her perfect!. Some very good songs her, like Battlefield, Morning Train, Not My Way home and more. The woman have the guts to change style. However, if you prefer the folk side of Nanci, this may not be the album for you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars remember, the working title included "...with Crickets.", August 17, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Roses From the Moons (Audio CD)

We lost Buddy Holly way back when, but the Crickets are still around, fronted by...Nanci Griffith? Apparently. So this cd is a little different, lots of covers, and stuff arranged and produced beyond what we usually get with the Blue Moon Orchestra (read: less intimate, less nuanced, less of the old Nanci we know and love).

Except, what's weird about that is that the Nanci/BMO tracks on this album are the weaker ones, and the only really listenable tracks are the big ol' rollicking cover tunes, like "Battlefield" and "I Fought the Law" and "Morning Train" -- all of which are a lot of fun.

The reinvention of "Gulf Coast Highway" with Darius Rucker is okay, though the original with Mac McAnally off "Little Love Affairs" is the canonical version of this song -- not to mention the great cover version Emmylou Harris did! So, I'm not sure we needed a reinvention of GCH, but since it's here, it's fine, and Hootie-fronter Darius Rucker holds his own.

Nanci's story-songs here, though, are what drags my review down. She likes to say "Not My Way Home" is her favorite song, and it IS probably the best of the originals on this cd (I love the vocalization, "my feet have TREAAAD upon that-a road yoooou're on..."), but that's not saying a terrific amount.

So, it's worth listening to for "Battlefield" and "Morning Train," and REALLY worth listening to for "I Fought the Law," which is a song just BUILT for Nanci to have a good time with, and she does.

And Sonny Curtis and the Crickets make an interesting addition to Nanci and the BMO, but when it comes down to it, I want my old Blue Moon Orchestra back.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, but......, June 18, 2000

By 

Kori Frazier (Kent, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Roses From the Moons (Audio CD)

Like most of the customers who reviewed this album, I am a big Nanci Griffith fan. However, unlike her other albums, "Blue Roses" is going to have trouble finding a permanent place in my CD player. This album is definitely more rock than her other releases, and although I admire her diversity, I have to say that her folk/pop releases appeal to me more. The first half of this CD was somewhat disappointing--it is packed with songs that have virtually no substance and contain lyrics that are difficult for me to relate to. Starting with her cover of "I Fought The Law", however, it gets a little better. Her new versions of "Gulf Coast Highway" and "Not My Way Home" are impressive, although I personally am still partial to the original recording of the former on her "Little Love Affairs" album. I am glad that I purchased this album, but I have to admit that it will take several recursive listenings before it can find its nitch in my CD collection. Although it is a decent album that shows evidence of work on the part of the artists and musicians, it does not measure up with "Other Voices, Other Rooms", "Flyer", "Poet In My Window", and her previous albums.