I thought of this song as I crossed US90 this afternoon. I sang what I remembered of it and then decided to look it up tonight. Then I learned she'd died. I'm really bummed that she's gone. I love her work so much. RIP Ms. Griffith.
The last few years have been devastating for music fans! Nanci, John Prine, Charlie D, Charlie P, K.T., Tony Rice, J.D, ... so heartbreaking for someone who’s loved these people and their music … kind of makes you dream of that blackbird’s wing! I hope I meet them all in Heaven!! It’ll be hugs and singing all around!!!
I just heard the news of Nanci's passing and my first thoughts went straight to one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I'm sure she's found her wings to that great blue bonnet spring
A masterpiece that touches absolute peaks for a song. I wonder how much imagination, sensitivity and artistic genius Nanci had to write a similar song. And in fact Nanci Griffith is a storyteller of the highest level, very sensitive, as well as being refined and superb singer and musician. This song has a moving, poignant and poetic text, and puts the chills and has wonderful music. There is an absolute tenderness towards the protagonists of the song. At the first listening I immediately felt that it was a masterpiece. Adorable Nanci.
@@jimtownsend8010 The tragic news has me crushed, actually, I don’t even know what to think or how to feel. She will always ALWAYS be in my heart & soul.
this song has been recorded by many others including emmylou and willie, but this is the best. years since she's gone and i still listen to her often. saw her many times, always uplifting
I am heartbroken at the news of Nanci's passing. The beauty and artistry of her music has been a blessing and a comfort in my life for many years and I am so grateful to her and the Blue Moon Orchestra for that. God bless you, dear lady.
This is the BEST song ever written.... It reminds me of Gulfport, Mississippi and my beloved sister, Connie. I miss you, I love you.... Flowers do fade and we will all set the sun, one day...
Don't know exactly when I made this comment "6 years ago", but so much has changed. My mother's cat who I adopted died in 2016, but most importantly, my BFF of 43 years died suddenly and unexpectedly on 11/13/19...., and now I am holding my 19 year old cat on my lap, and she is not going to be here much longer... Very sad, and wish I could go back to those 6 years... When my old cat passes (she's all I got left), I hope I go very soon afterwards because I am done.... Life is so difficult as time passes.Today is 4/2/20... :(
@@greenbeagle13 im so sorry about your cat. Mine, Sammy and Scotch are both gone. People tell me to get another but they were like children. I cant replace them BUT so many need a home. Its heartbreaking and alot of people dont understand how the loss of a pet can be so devastating. Enjoy the time u have w the kitty who is there w you now-Sue I lost my best friend too several yrs ago and never found that closeness w another but I do have other friends just not quite as special
@@lastnamefirst4035 - Thank you. I just saw this today (1/6/22). I wrote that initial comment about my cat, Hobbes, on 4/2/20 - she passed 5 days later. I miss her, I miss my best friend, I miss that life... 🧡🧡
It’s not unusual for an album that doesn’t sell a lot to spawn a song that lives on long after the rest of the record is forgotten. That’s the case with “Gulf Coast Highway,” from Nanci Griffith’s Little Love Affairs. While the 1988 album did so-so sales-wise, “Gulf Coast Highway” went on to become one of Griffith’s best-loved numbers, and has also been performed by Emmylou Harris in duets with Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, and the song’s co-writer, keyboardist James Hooker. Co-written by Griffith, the song is the story of an everyday couple who sing of keeping a home and growing old through life’s challenges on Highway 90 in Texas. The question is so often asked of songwriters, “Which came first, the music or the words?” While the lines are often blurred, the answer in this case is that the music came first according to Hooker. “Thirty Years! A bit foggy now,” Hooker said. “I put it down in my house in Antioch, Tennessee. I do remember having the whole thing recorded before I played it for Nanci on the bus one night, very late, driving the Penn Turnpike in a driving snowstorm. She jumped up before it finished, ran to her stateroom and grabbed paper and pen and commenced scribbleizations. The lyrics weren’t finished that night - those came a week or so after that run, when Nanci came over to the house to nail it down. She brought Danny Flowers with her and Danny brought ‘She walked through springtime.’ The rest of the lyric is pure Nanci.” The song is often noted for its lines about the state flower of Texas, the bluebonnet, which doesn’t grow in many other places: This is the only place on earth bluebonnets grow and then she will fly away to Heaven come some sweet bluebonnet spring. In 1997 Griffith re-recorded it as a duet with Darius Rucker, who was still fronting Hootie and the Blowfish, for her Blue Roses from the Moons album. There’s also a bootleg version of the song online by Bruce Springsteen that was recorded during a sound check. Hooker is both surprised and grateful that so many people have an interest in the song. “I had no idea that song would still be buying cigarettes and beer 30 years later,” he said. “I see it all over RU-vid, and yes, I punch ‘play’ quite often. I get a good bit of email from fans still, telling me ‘Thanks for this song’ and ‘It has meant so much to me in my life.’ Things like that mean a lot to me. My doing a duet of this song, live with Emmylou, is a high point, but none can compare to The Nanster.”
Where'd you reprint that from? Whoever wrote that was dismissive --an album that included "uUtbound Plane" (later a hit for Suzy Bogguss) and Julie Gold's "From A Distance" (first airing by a major performer, later went megabig for Bette MIdler) shouldn't be dismissed as something "forgotten! How about Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa's informal sound-check recording of "Gulf Coast Highway?" Did they ever perform that live? Musicians take note of other musicians' excellence, and THEY don't forget -- until they get dementia or Alzheimer's. And even then, people remember music the most. Even when they don't recognize their own loved ones.
So many times I traveled down the coast from outside Houston to Corpus, my childhood home. Passing football fields, houses no longer ther but the long driveways lined with live oaks blown by the gulf coast winds bent yet still linng the drive. Smell of salt water .....
Heard this first by Emmy and Willie and realised it was brilliant. Then I heard this version and am lost for words. It is even better. James voice adds another level to this song. Don’t get me wrong, don’t know which is better, I love Emmy’s version but will have to listen to this version as well.
Oh, my heart. Another loss, it's getting so hard. She was a part of so many of my memories. My late husband and I used to sing this song together. I hope against hope that John Prine has welcomed her and they are singing a duet right now, with Fred chiming in.
Amy I’m sure she will have been greeted in heaven by friends who have passed on. I have this theory that all our musical heroes are up there having great jam sessions and teaching the angels to sing blues and folk and bluegrass music. When we get there we can just wander through those many rooms in heaven and listen and join in with all the music. I had the pleasure of seeing Nanci twice on stage when she toured the UK and always played her music in the car on long journeys. So sad that she has gone, she was one of the best.
Oh goodness. I haven't listened to Nanci for ages. The memories doing so dredged up were hard and best buried. I had no idea how rich and smoky her voice had become. Not for worse or for better. And there's no mistaking her voice, just different. Perhaps I am imagining too much, but I think I hear a weary wisdom that comes with life's harder experiences as we age. She's so lovely, and when her voice was the soundtrack to my life, I loved her greatly too.
Hers was a terrible loss to music in general, and Country in particular. Nanci Griffith was a gift, not appreciated nearly enough beyond her immediate milieu. ~Rest her soul & spirit for the immense heart & soul she brought us with her songs. ♡ 🎵
I'm a man, and i sit here tears streaming every time I hear this song. It catches so much of the essence of life, no matter what you worked at or where you lived. It all comes down to the same for most of us.
I heard Nanci live in San Diego a number of years ago. Uncharacteristically, maybe because it was a small venue, she asked if there were any requests so I out shouted the lot and asked for GCH and, they performed it. R.I.P.
I've spent this afternoon listening to all the songs I've loved so much. What a treasure. "...An open window for a feathered heart to fly away..." I just hope she's in heaven, reading all these beautiful tributes. And literally telling her critics to go to hell. ;-)
I like the range of her voice. Not too high - not too low. What a graceful voice. I'm not a huge fan of Country music... But this lady might just twist my arm , ears and heart.
The original and in my opinion, the best. I love Hookers singing allied to his keyboard playing and think that he sings this song better than any of the others who have sung it with nanci.
I haven't heard a less-than wonderful version of this lovely song, of the three Nanci duets posted here.  It's so pretty, and evokes great sadness for me, as I ponder my three less-than-successful marriages.
I too think the Mac Macanally version is pure gold, but on hearing James Hooker take the part, I have to say he elevates the song so that it flies away to heaven. So I guess I like both versions.
This version is in C major. The usual key, as all other recordings on youtube show, is D major, a whole tone higher. The commonest reason for pitching a song low is to accommodate a lower voice. Since Nanci Griffith has sung it repeatedly in D major before, the controlling factor must be James Hooker's voice. As a co-composer of this song, he is entitled to perform it in any key he chooses, but he must prefer the deeper sonority. His vocal solo is quite satisfying, so he's chosen well.
Good pickup. James Hooker gets to sing this in any key he wants. He is the consummate musician, and if we think Nanci herself is underrated, just think about how everyone overlooks the sublime musical direction provided quietly and steadily over the years by Mr. Hooker. He's the guy behind the gal.
Goodbye, dearest great and sweet Nanci (born July 6, 1953, Seguin, Texas, USA - died August 13, 2021), will you now look from heaven down to us... Patrick from Switzerland
It's interesting that Nanci Griffith's partners in the three versions on youtube sing variations on the main theme, which are probably harmony-parts, to get their baritone voices to the top of their vocal range, where the baritone voice lives and sounds most compelling, whereas Emmylou Harris's partners, Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews, sing the melody in the more comfortable mid-baritone range, the better part of an octave lower. It's an artistic choice and both choices sound fine.
@verbaud What is Real in you can never, ever be threatened. EVER! You are a perfect Child of God, invulnerable in every way. Eternally shining, innocent and beyond harm. Blessings.
Can't help feeling I'm by some derelict house. A life cycle as sweetly fleeting as spring flowers; until Nancy chanced to press them into her memory book.
Denny Bixby's part, in the key of D, has a top note of E, which he reaches well and without much effort. He thus exhibits the highest vocal range among Nanci Griffith's partners, Rucker, Hooker and Bixby.
On a practical level, the highest note of the part that James Hooker sings is a major second above the key note. In the key of C, that's D, which is easily negotiable for a baritone. In the key of D, it would be E, which may be on the verge of being uncomfortably high to sound good for the usual baritone voice as it might be a strain for a baritone voice to reach it. In Nanci Griffith's other versions, her baritone partners' parts are pitched lower, with respect to the key note, so D is OK.
@@greenbeagle13 maybe, except I perfectly understand many other artists. My Hearing troubles have been documented earlier. Thank you for your confirmation second opinion. Sadly, I did not discover Nanci until recently. Maybe, if I had listened as a youth I would have deciphered her twang better. But it's not her Texas accent that throws me, just her occasional affectation that garbles some of her words. Looking for my marbles.....
