Songwriter Nanci Griffith Legacy Explored In New Book

Love at the Five and Dime: The Songwriting Legacy of Nanci Griffith is out today through Texas A&M University Press! 

Nanci was a completely singular singer, songwriter and song finder,” author Brian T. Atkinson says. “She loved celebrating her favorite songs like Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Tecumseh Valley,’ Kate Wolf’s ‘Across the Great Divide,’ and Julie Gold’s ‘From a Distance’ as much as singing her own classics ‘Gulf Coast Highway,’ ‘Trouble in the Fields,’ ‘It’s a Hard Life (Wherever You Go)’ and ‘Late Night Grande Hotel.’”

 
Love at the Five and Dime includes interviews with more than one hundred thirty songwriter friends (Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Dave Alvin, Don McLean) and followers (Elizabeth Cook, James McMurtry, Todd Snider) as well as players (steel guitarist Lloyd Green, the London Symphony Orchestra’s Tom Norris) and producers (Tony Brown, Peter Collins, Jim Rooney). Additionally, the book’s foreword features a conversation with the Indigo Girls, Kathy Mattea and Lyle Lovett. “Nanci’s songs seemed like they were about something real with genuine writing that made you want to listen again and again,” Lovett says. You aspire to that quality as a songwriter. 
 
Common lyrical themes easily emerged in Griffith’s writing,” Atkinson writes in the book’s introduction. “She captured moments fleeting, relationships evolving and everymen struggling for purchase on brighter days. Griffith fought tirelessly for broken hearts and false starts while mystical melodies winged her words. She backed each sharp story song and vibrant vignette with combustible compassion and strength in vulnerability.” Nanci didn’t sing at a distance from herself,” says Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz, who cowrote Griffith’s high watermark “Going Back to Georgia.” “She fully embodied the characters she sang and took you there with her. 
 
What people are saying about Love at the Five and Dime:
Nanci was a trailblazer in many ways and showed that you can do what you do and stick to your guns, be a nice person and come out okay. Doing all that and standing up for yourself at the same time is a tricky thing to learn. Nanci was fearless living in Nashville, singing country songs, and speaking out for people for real before many others did. We’re so thankful Brian wrote Love at the Five and Dime because it will help people understand what she was and still is. They need to know. People can learn from Nanci Griffith.” – Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray
 
“Nanci Griffith is one of the greatest songwriters to come out of Texas. The beauty of Love at the Five and Dime and the beauty of Nanci Griffith can be found in her work, which has impacted generation after generation of songwriters. This book is a must read for anyone interested in Texas music, folk music, songwriting, the glory and perils of fame and the intricate web that songwriters weave as we bounce off of each other’s work and ideas as we try to shape our own.” – Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, author of Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2021)
 
“Brian really did this right…loving, yes, but also unvarnished and real. Like our friends and colleagues whose words you’ll read in these pages, we loved Nanci and we knew that she required special treatment. Geniuses live in a different world from the rest of us and we were constantly protective an nurturing toward her. The creative work she turned out during our decades-long friendship ranged from triumphant to tragic and we treasured every moment as we shared her rollercoaster ride of song. Love at the Five and Dime makes that long road trip real again.” – Pete and Maura Kennedy, the Kennedys, backing band for Nanci Griffith for twenty years.
 
CLICK HERE to purchase Love at the Five and Dime: The Songwriting Legacy of Nanci Griffith
 

Brian T. Atkinson’s earlier books include volumes on legendary songwriters Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Mickey Newbury and Roky Erickson as well as the forthcoming East Nashville Skyline: The Songwriting Legacy of Todd Snider (due fall 2025) and Always Chasing the Sun: The Songwriting Legacy of Judee Sill (2026).

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