June 30, 2023 (Song #2008): “Once In A Very Blue Moon” (1984) sung by Nanci Griffith (written by Pat Alger)
KARAOKE! Listen to Nancy singing it on “Austin City Limits” in 1985. APPLE MUSIC SPOTIFY
T-34* (today we should call it: TMI-34*) brings me to 1989, my 3rd year at GRP Records. Three years before, while singing in the Sitzmark Bar at the Alta Lodge, a man told me that I sounded “just like Nanci Griffith; have you heard of her?” “No, “I said, “Well, I tell ya, you sound just like her.” So, I immediately picked up my phone and found Nanci Griffith on Spotify (HAHAHA! This is almost 40 years ago, people!. Scratch that.) Rather, I drove the thirty miles down Little Cottonwood Canyon in the lodge van (which they let me use because I was buying and arranging the flowers for the dining room) and found a record store in Salt Lake City (I’m thinking it must have been a “Sam Goody’s” or “Tower”?) so I could buy a Nanci Griffith CD.
The minute I got back to the Lodge and put it on, my world stopped spinning: Nanci Griffith’s voice was nothing like mine, but it was also like nothing I’d ever heard before and I wasn’t completely sure I liked it.
I was confused; the song lyrics, melodies, harmonies and instrumentation were compelling but her voice was high and wobbly (did that guy in the Sitzmark think my voice was high and wobbly?). Still, there was something about her songs and her voice that made me listen to the CD 25 times that first week. I quickly learned “Once In A Very Blue Moon” and played it constantly; the chord progression became so much a part of me that I still play it every time I sit down at a piano (I may have borrowed it and put it into at least one of my own songs).
At one point in 1986, Nanci Griffith performed in Salt Lake City and, since my brother Russell was visiting, we went to the concert together. I noticed him looking at me during the concert and I said: “What?” and he said: “Watching you watching her is way more entertaining than watching her….” Yep.
Now, back to T-34* and 1989: I was still working at GRP Records and one day my boss said to me and Alison: “You should take these tickets to this CD Release Party, no one else wants to go.” “Who is performing?” I asked and when he said “Nanci Griffith”, Alison King and I ran out of work and headed to some bar in the middle of Manhattan and down the stairs to a tiny cocktail party where no one was paying any attention at all to the music. We sat down at a table right in front of her and grinned and basked in her incredible talent while she played the songs from her new “Storms” album just for us.
Later that year, I began to get frustrated by the work/paycheck ratio of my job. I’d been hired as a receptionist and was quickly promoted when they needed someone to learn “Lotus 1-2-3” in an effort to computerize all of their written production schedules. After learning the program and transferring all the written documents to computerized spreadsheets, my boss, Dotty Kenul, quit (I’ve always felt sad about that.) They gave me her title (“Production Coordinator”) and soon added “Director of International Distribution” (since I came in to the office at 9am, and, thus, was the only person in the office who could communicate with the foreign distributors when they were at work), and I got raises – which, industry standard dictated, was 10%.
But, when I stepped back and thought of how much work I was putting in (I almost always stayed at work until the art department – who came to work at noon – was ready to go home, usually at about 8pm) and how little I was being paid, I asked my boss to reconsider my salary. He said no, but they offered to print my name in the CD credits (if you have any old GRP CDs, check it out). When I asked for more money again a few months later, they changed my job title to “Director of Production”, but still, no money.
I thanked them for the gesture and started looking for another job.
Around this time, I had been listening to a CD sampler that I loved called “Here It Is: The Music” put out by Rykodisc, which had three songs on it that blew me away: The Red Clay Ramblers’ “Home Is Where The Heart Is”, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s “Henry & James” and, of course, Nanci Griffith’s “Once In A Very Blue Moon”.
Somehow I got an interview with Don Rose at Rykodisc and they offered me a job with a generous salary and an allowance for moving to Salem (I remember visiting their offices at Pickering Wharf). Though I would be sad to leave my sister, Alison and NYC, I was ready to be fairly compensated.
When I told my boss, he told the co-president of the company, Larry Rosen, that I was leaving; Larry quickly ushered me into his office: “What is going on???” I told him “I’ve been asking for a raise for months.” and he said: “I did not know that. I’ll give you whatever you want to stay.” He then proceeded to match the Rykodisc offer and then some. It truly felt like a “Once In a Blue Moon” moment and I always felt that, somehow, I had Nanci Griffith and that song to thank for that raise.
