THE WORTHY DISCIPLENANCI GRIFFITH LEADS A FOLK RENAISSANCE BY HARKENING TO THE MASTER

"I wanted to leave MCA in Los Angeles. At first I thought I'd stick it out until my contract was up. At the time, I still owed them three albums. But I just couldn't do it," Griffith says, growing serious. "When the idea came up to do this album, I just really did not want MCA to have it, not out of any kind of viciousness, but they just would not have known what the music was and who these writers were. "Elektra came to me when they found out I was hard at work trying to get out of my contract with MCA. When they found out that this album was the first product they'd be getting, they were so excited, because that's Elektra's roots--folk music."
Unlike Michelle Shocked's album, which has been a slow seller, Griffith's project is off to a fast start. What makes the album truly special, besides the impressive guest list, is that Griffith had the sincerity and confidence as a songwriter to do an album of time-tested classics. She says she never considered the fact that recording songs by people like Bob Dylan would invite unkind comparisons.

"That never occurred to me. Really," she says. "Music means so much to me. I'm such a devout fan. I'm a hopeless consumer. Music is my sacred comforter, my saving grace. "I owe so much to these writers. You can't learn how to write until you learn how to read. And I've always felt that as a songwriter, you can't learn how to write songs until you learn how to listen.