night out

Last night, my LSH and I rushed out of here as soon as his office closed... and raced up the Turnpike... and through the Lincoln Tunnel (well, the latter was more like a crawl; took us two very painful hours from the exit off the turnpike to the parking garage). It took so long, in fact, that we didn't have time for dinner and had to settle for a romantic beer in a cup and package of peanut M&Ms in the lobby.

But it was all worth it because we saw her! My favorite singer of all time! The artist whose albums I would take to a deserted island! Here are my cell phone photos to prove it:





OK, might have to help you out on this one: it was Nanci Griffith! (If you want to know what she really looked like, take a look at the Simple Life video.) And she was just as awesome as I thought she would be. She even encouraged the audience to sing along to Sound of the Speed of Loneliness and Across the Great Divide (minus Emmylou Harris, but Maura and Pete Kennedy did join her for this one). Now how great is an artist to have you sing along on the songs that you just can't resist singing when they come up on the iPod. Maybe she knows that people will sing along no matter what so she might as well ask them?

Of course she played songs from her new album -- I particularely liked The Loving Kind, about Mildred and Richard Loving -- but plenty of her older stuff as well. My only admittedly minor regret is that she didn't play my favorite song (or my second favorite, for that matter; I am including it just in case you are compelled to check them out, as this beautiful duet is not to be missed).

Do yourself a favor. Listen to a few of her songs, if you don't know her already. And if you know of another artist like her (country/folk/rockabilly/national treasure/defies categorization), please let me know! I've been searching for years for her equal. I am starting to realize that one probably doesn't exist.

Which makes it all the more wonderful that I got to see her.