It’s been a ‘Journey’!
“The Journey From Grape To Raisin” is the first solo album from Americana stalwart Sid Griffin in ten years and will be released on 27th September via Label 51 and we’re getting the news to you so quickly there’s not even any artwork yet! Watch this space.
For his step back into solo recording Griffin has surrounded himself with some old friends: “As a Kentucky boy I wanted to record where everyone had the same accent as me so this new solo album was cut in Nashville at Thomm Jutz’ great studio. And I wanted old friends around me like Mark Fain of Kentucky Thunder and Tammy Rogers of the Steel Drivers, both Grammy Award winners.” And consequently Griffin considers it his best ever work: “After my previous solo album I became caught up in freelance writing for everyone from Cecil Sharpe House to Encyclopedia Britannica and in archival work for my band The Long Ryders, as we suddenly became historically important with multiple reissues. Plus I complied and annotated The Basement Tapes box set while working in the Dylan office in New York City. All these projects took time away from my solo career.”
The eleven songs on the album reflect on Griffin’s life in music. Fate, romance, mortality, the aftermath of war, and even a campfire cover of a Velvet Underground classic are all there. There’s also a poem to a fallen childhood friend.
Kentucky native Griffin was a founder of the Long Ryders, who are on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville as part of their Western Edge exhibit. He’s also a record producer, a freelance writer, the author of four books, and was Resident Musicologist on the BBC Radcliffe & Maconie show.
