Blue Roses?

Nanci Griffith Blue Roses from the Moons (Elektra)

In the winter of 1986, Nanci Griffith gathered up some musician friends to back her vocal performances on tour and in the studio. The group chose their name-the Blue Moon Orchestra-from Griffith's third album, Once in a Very Blue Moon, and have provided Griffith fans with near-perfect accompaniment ever since.

Through the years, the orchestra has evolved from being Griffith's background into a musical entity of its own. The band has created its own sort-of-rockabilly style to maximize the soul Griffith brings to all of her works, giving their albums a distinctive feel. Even 1993's Other Voices, Other Rooms, a cover tribute to Griffith's favorite songwriters, was distinctly Griffithian. Her cover choices were interesting, never quite succumbing to mainstream influence, and she picked tunes that reflected her own style and message. But Griffith is not afraid to choose to cover songs that are unlike her-just to see of what she and the band are capable.

In her latest album, Blue Roses from the Moons, Griffith takes the listener on a journey much like the ten-year voyage she and the Blue Moon Orchestra have experienced. Most of the fourteen songs on the CD are about distances-from the many miles that separate the continents to the close bonds that connect kindred spirits.

The album truly does take us on a tour through Griffith's musical evolution, from early sad country songs to the more upbeat style she has taken up in recent years. The tender and heart-string-pulling prayer "Saint Teresa of Avila" is a reminder of those early folk tunes that gave Griffith her start, and she turns up the Texas twang in "Battlefield" and a cute cover of Sonny Curtis' "I Fought the Law," complete with Curtis on guitar and the duet vocal.

The upbeat numbers are scattered all through the disc, but the most notable of these is the opening single, "Everything's Comin' Up Roses," a tune she co-wrote with Nashville rocker Matt Ryan.

Past and present members of the Blue Moon Orchestra join Griffith for the album, as well as Buddy Holly's legendary band, the Crickets, and Hootie and the Blowfish's Darius Rucker. Now before you eschew Griffith as a sellout, think about how well Rucker's voice should fit a Griffith tune. It does. Rucker, a longtime friend and fan of Griffith's, replaces James Hooker (Griffith's duet partner in concert) on the "Gulf Coast Highway," taking the song from a mournful melody, bringing it into a more soulful and powerful light. Longtime Griffith fans will tell you that only Hooker can make the song sound just right, but Rucker takes the listener through new twists and turns on Griffith's already well-travelled road.

Griffith and Rucker's collaboration is divine, just as it is on Hootie's latest album Fair-weather Johnson (you know that female duet in "So Strange"? That's Nanci). But I must give Griffith thumbs-down for putting a picture of Rucker and her in the liner notes. Not that the picture itself is all that bad, but Griffith is sporting a Hootie t-shirt in the photo. Shameless promotion? Maybe.