Nanci Griffith: Hearts In Mind : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Folkie songstress takes on war -- between countries and on the domestic front lousy wars make for good folk songs. At least that's one strangely upbeat lesson you could learn listening to Hearts in Mind, the luminous new album by Nanci Griffith dedicated "to the memory of every soldier and every civilian lost to the horrors of war." Produced by Griffith and Pat McInerney -- a longtime member of her Blue Moon Orchestra -- Hearts balances songs informed by assorted wars ("Big Blue Ball of War," "Old Hanoi") with others more focused on the domestic, romantic home front (the buoyant "Love Conquers All"). Friends and fellow travelers pop up here and there -- including Jimmy Buffett on Clive Gregson's wonderfully wry "I Love This Town" -- but the heart of Hearts remains Griffith's lovely, literate voice and her stubborn grace