The Last Of The True Believers

Conjuring images of sawdust, line dancing and incest as all good Country should.

3.2 - A sweet country sound, bordering on saccharine. Also extremely feminine. Listening to this record makes me picture a group of middle-aged white women sitting out on camping chairs, sipping white wine, getting a little rowdy, getting a little sad.

Holy fuck, I wasn’t expecting much from this album when I woke up this morning, and even less so after the opening bars of its first track. But there I was standing at a bus stop in baking heat wearing a Sisters of Mercy t-shirt, and this album made me completely forget the searing sun and almost reduced me to tears. It’s so fucking good. Griffiths’ voice is so uplifting, it’s majestic. The production is incredible. This album just shimmers from start to finish - with the title track and “Fly By Night” my personal highlights. Every note seems meticulously placed so as to evoke as much emotion as possible. This is a country pop masterpiece and the easiest 5 stars I’ve given out so far.

About. Damn. Time. Sifted through enough punk, British bullhickey... overdue for a steel guitar.

Lullabies for adults.

I knew this album was going to be good but it killed expectations. I love all the country instrumentation as there’s tons of steel, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, banjo. Her vocals are unique as well and remind me of one of my favorite singers Emmylou Harris with its more folky country sound. Very good, no bad tracks.

My family took a lot of road trips when I was a kid. We lived in NC But we drove to TX, Yellowstone National Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park at different points. Nanci Griffith was the soundtrack to these drives across the country and honestly I can't think of a better soundtrack to driving through the mountains and across the heartland of this country. This probably veers too far into country music for my taste these days but the nostalgia of it is strong, her voice is beautiful, and her music helped shape my love of blue grass even though I don't love country.

Damn y’all ain’t afraid of broadcasting the classism you’ve tied up with the country genre.

Iris Demint vibes. Old girl country or modern girl indie.

I enjoyed it! Definitely a fun one to kick this off with. My favorite song was probably "One of These Days." Her voice really comes through in the whole album and I loved the fiddle. I looked Nanci Griffith up and apparently she passed in the last year which is tragic; she was best known for the most played song on the album ("Love at the Five and Dime" which I thought had a really nice vocal line in the eponymous line) but with someone else covering it that blew up in the country world. I hadn't ever heard of her but it seems like she was pretty important and influential.

Ahhh Ice Queen Nanci Griffith, the one that got away. I used to stalk her and her younger sister until she filed for a restraining order, forcing me to attempt suicide 37 times. Bitch. I banged the younger sister though. Hard. Without consent.

Good, but imho nothing special Country album.

I can get down with this opening track. Love At The Five And Dime is a great tune! More Than A Whisper is such a strong lyrical song. Banks Of The Pontchartrain is another fucking banger. Goin' Gone is a great tune but it's a little hard for me to listen to right now. Something that shows through in her work is her effortless mastry of blending melody accents and lyrics. It shows off her sterling lyric work and usually catches me. One Of These Days kills. Damn what a fine album.

Well isnt this just flawless

This album is like a warm hug during a thunderstorm telling you everything will be okay. I did not think I would enjoy this, but this album was one of the most enjoyable experiences. It's nice to get out of all the British new wave and shitty UK drill for good old-fashioned country tunes. The perfect album to sit out on the porch in your rocking chair with a glass of sweet tea. 5/5, 10/10.

I am a fully paid-up member of the NG fan club and boy how she's missed. Be grateful that this - her best album - is on Spotify as her catalogue is only patchily available on streaming. This is right in the middle of her proper Imperial Period - starting with previous album Once In A Very Blue Moon (not available on Spotify) and stretching over five albums to Storms where she was operating with a quality and consistency that few singer-songwriters can match. Virtually every track here is gold, Love at the Five and Dime of course the stand-out.

cool

Country y folk. ¿Qué más puedo pedir? Voz preciosa.

Amazing country album. Amazing find that I’ll return to.

LOVE IT!

A country artist I have never heard. And that's a hard feat to do! 5 star album all the way

Country done right.

Powerhouse of a voice. I got pretty excited by track 1, but then couldn’t find another track to match it. Some close contenders include “Fly By Night” and “Lookin’ For The Time (Workin’ Girl)”. So close to giving it a Four, but it’s lacking some quality that distinguished my favorite albums of this genre.

This was nice. Maybe a bit more country-leaning than folk-leaning for my particular taste, but I enjoyed it. 3 stars.

thank god this doesn't suffer from 80s production disease because i am a giant sucker for her voice and these kinds of songs. ultimately felt kinda middling but nice.

So bad. The folkiest folk, mixed with yodeling country. I couldn’t even get through the whole thing. Listen again: no way Purchase for my collection: no Favourite Song:

I did not like this album at all. It’s the old timey country love songs that I just hate. I would actively turn this off if played in the future.

If I had one genre that I actually can't find much to like about it, it would be pop country, and this album is just that. It isn't as egregious as what you may hear on half of the radio stations available while you're driving in the middle of nowhere, but it still really isn't good for me. Country is built a lot on the stories the lyrics tell, but none of these songs feel any more interesting than what you could hear on something in any other song, and the instruments, while I suppose "soothing" are repetitive. That country twang can only be added to so many songs before I start to become numb to it, and then it goes from being annoying to boring, both things you don't want your music to be. Could I see why people may like this? Perhaps, and it's year of release was around the time when country music was starting to transition from more of a blues and folk focus to something more like what it is today, so this is probably for that "revolution" in music, but I just don't enjoy it. If you don't like country music, this does nothing to win you over, but it's certainly not the worst album I've gotten, and the last two songs on the album show some hint of something that could be good. Too little too late, however.

I got two track in and was hot with an overwhelming feeling of I'm not wasting my Saturday with this shit. Cuntry music can fuck right off.

another surprise; I'm really not into country but the songwriting on this is top shelf.

Hooked from the first ten seconds of the first song. Sweet voice, sweet lyrics, sweet fiddle. Would absolutely listen again.

Very good!

Simply just some good ol' classic country that sounds great. 4.5 up to 5.

I am at a 5. I am also in bliss. Is it too late to make that Trio we got way earlier into a Quartet? I know Dolly, Emmylou & Linda don’t need a 4th, but if they ever wanted one, I’d immediately vouch for Nanci Griffith – what a beautiful, beautiful voice. Her vocals add so much emotional depth to what’s already an album full of incredibly well written songs. I know I’m a sucker for country, and this album pretty much hits on every country trope I like, but even if I could remove my biases, I just think there’s something beautiful to the whole thing here. When I think of country music, I continue to curse the name of Toby Keith and all the other motherfuckers who took this style of country far away and made it into sucking off the troops, drinking beer, sexualizing girls in bikinis, and a bunch of other platitudinal bullshit that doesn’t really represent what country was always made to capture. It’s this type of sound, and these types of stories. It’s the slice of life Americana with good storytelling that calls back to younger days full of starry-eyed hope and wonder. It’s exactly what this album captures so well, and so beautifully. It certainly helps that there’s a real variety to these tracks – this goes all over the place tonally and even geographically in the lyrics, but it stays pretty grounded and anchored by the core instrumentation of the acoustic guitar, the steel guitar, the fiddle, and the really light percussion. No two tracks feel quite the same, especially if you actually bother to read the lyrics. Her voice just glides on top of everything else though, the little missing puzzle piece that makes these songs totally pop. Even when the choruses get a little repetitive, her voice is just so damn good that it’s easy to get lost in it without a care. I could keep going, but I just really, really, really enjoyed this. I know there’s a disposition against modern country, and it’s well deserved, but this is the type of album that makes me pray that this style can come back into the forefront someday. Intelligent writing, great storytelling, simple soundscapes, and great vocals. That’s all it takes, and while it’s easier said than done, I really think we can get there if people just put in the damn effort, just like Nanci Griffith did here. Just a stellar 5.

Man, Nanci Griffith was pure magic. Her voice, her lyrics, her storytelling. In so many ways, she reminds me of John Prine. Good storytelling with songs about love and loss, but always approachable and human. There's that small element of humor in her words and in her voice. More than anything, this is a record that I can kind of just live in. Its somewhere that I want to hang out and sip coffee. Especially on a autumn day such as today (Oct 3, 2025). "Vibe" feels to trite to explain it, but this record is a feeling. It's warm and lovely and I'm okay if it plays all day. Also, I can't listen to Nanci Griffith without thinking about Meg. Her parents are big Nanci fans, so she was kind of raised on this music.

I've never really been a country music guy, but every so often an artist allows me to appreciate the genre. This was great; I enjoyed both the songwriting and the delivery. Nanci Griffith's voice suits the material perfectly. I can see a direct through-line from here to another country artist I enjoy; Waxahatchee

Brilliant. Great vocalist. Great songs. Somehow I missed her back then.

Bello country

Absolutely lovely country/folk album. Not a bad song on it.

want on vinyl 10 10 10’s across the board

When I think of classic country I think of this sound. Such a lovely album.

Stunning and raw new America country album.

This surpassed my expectations. It's everything I want in a country album: story-forward, well-written, and concise. I love Nanci Griffith's voice and melodies, and the production is on point. I'm already looking forward to listening again. Highlights: The Last Of The True Believers, Love At The Five & Dime, St. Olav's Gate, Banks Of The Pontchartrain, Lookin' For The Time (Workin' Girl), Fly By Night

Angelic. 💙. 5

Such a great album -- really top-notch. Nanci Griffith sure could write songs. I could listen to this on repeat.

Country Folk, pero en los 80, muy tranquilero pero mola para trabajar o cocinar y escuchar de fondo

Best song - Love At The Five & Dime

A Nashville album with pedal steel guitar like this is going to get a 5 star every single time from me. Put this in an enema and shoot it straight into my ass. Perfect music.

This is the voice I most closely associate with my mum. Except probably her own voice, and her mum's and okay excluding people from our immediate lives.

Such a lovely voice and talented songwriter

Today's album is like country folk, which has a genre title. It's called folkabilly, apparently. Pretty solid easy listening record. Nancy's like Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, or, in modern music, like Alison Krauss. Favourite songs: St. Olav's Gate, Love's Found a Shoulder, Lookin' For the Time (Workin' Girl), Banks of The Pontchartrain, Love at the Five & Dime, More Than a Whisper, The Last of the True Believers, Goin' Gone, One of These Days, Fly By Night Least favourite songs: The Wing & the Wheel 5/5

Love her unique sound.

I love country music

Excellent

Country y folk. ¿Qué más puedo pedir? Voz preciosa.

Loved this

Mmm 5

She is an American treasure. 5 stars.

utterly charming

One of my favorite songs in college was "Once In a Very Blue Moon" by Nanci Griffith, which I had on a mix tape. It was nice to spend some time with her again today. This is lovely and it makes me wonder why she wasn't more of a country music superstar, since she does it so very well.

This was getting a 5 whether I loved it or not. Boy, did I love it!! My one complaint is how short the album is, and every time that I listened, it just seemed to get shorter. I wanted more.

Well this was lovely. More like this, please. More!

This was just the change of pace I’ve been needing on this project! Some steel guitar was music to my ears and Nanci’s songs were great! What a terrific listen!

My parents played a LOT of Nanci Griffith during my childhood (and Allison Krauss, Iris DeMent, etc) so I have a huge soft spot for that whole scene. Really enjoyed this though as far as NG albums go I prefer Other Voices, Other Rooms.

Fucking awesome made me really sad

This album blew me away. I wasn't expecting something so soft and soothing. Nanci's soft voice and lyrics sounds so comforting with the instrumentals adding a sense of nostalgia in every song. Honestly, as someone who thought that country music wasn't for me, it left me with a different opinion on the genre.

Superb

The haven't been a ton of first time listens that I've given five stars to but this one just hits right.

Superb songwriting. Great performances. Masterful.

Absolutely brilliant country, defies the usual stereotypes of the genre and delivers on every level. Enjoyable and comforting.

I don’t know, what it is. This kind of simple or that kind?

Some nice country tunes. As I reach the end of this list, I feel country wasn't represented enough and they could have added more. I really enjoyed most of the country albums on here and this suggests there are more gems like this. Did we really need so many mediocre Briptop albums? Or generic 80s rock crap? More of this please.

This is definitely not an album of its time. It feels 12 years too late but its such a gem regardless.

Proof that country music is infinitely more tolerable when done by a woman (Joking! Mostly.) No but seriously this was very nice

Folk US très agréable

Good but not really my thing

I enjoyed the twangy, country sound. I would seek out more of this sound.

I wasn't expecting a country album, and I wasn't expecting it to be so good. I hear a lot of newer artists in this album, so it was clearly pretty influential.

I really liked this one. It feels like a really good folk singer trying her hand at country music, and I think it works really well. “St. Olav’s Gate” has a really fun almost bluegrass feel to it. The steel guitar on “Goin’ Gone” is absolutely immaculate. “Love’s Found a Shoulder” stood out as a delightful waltz too. There’s a lot of really talented musicians on this record, and Nanci Griffith’s voice complements them quite well. I will definitely be listening to this one again.

I wasn't initially excited diving into a folk/country record from the 80's, but this completely blew me away. Nanci Griffith is an incredible singer and the production is powerful without overshadowing her. In fact it perfectly lifts her up her vocals.

Beautiful playing. Beautiful singing. Lovely songs and arrangements. A sweet moment in this very specific, delicate world.

Y'know, I like country music. The old stuff, anyway. 'Coz, I'unno, modern country music is just... Modern music. And I hardly listen to that in general. But old music? The old country stuff? That's up my alley. And, no, I'm not an "I only listen to Johnny Cash" type. Most anything from the 1960's to the 2000's is up my alley, especially if it's been parodied by Cledus T. Judd or recorded by Dolly or (yes) Johnny Cash. And this album came out in the late 80's, so... Yeah, it's all my alley. And I like it. ...I'm not sure what else to say about it, honestly. "It's good country music." That's all I can muster. I mean, you want me to get into the specifics of why I like it? I'm not sure why. I know there **is** differences between artists, but for the most part, being 100, besides which decade it came out in, I have a hard time telling a lot of country music apart from each other. Which is fine by me; that means if I like one song from one decade, I'm bound to like more. And that's not to say I don't have specific favorites, but... I'unno. Country is coming to seem like it's gonna be the hardest genre for me to talk about, unless there's something particularly special about it—AT FOLSOM PRISON, for example, to bring up Johnny Cash again. So, yeah. It's a good album, I like it enough for a 4. I just don't have anything specific to say about it. First time in a while I haven't been able to blabber on and on about an album, but that's just bound to happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have this urge to go to Woolworth's.

This type of 80s pop country reminds me so much of my wife. It makes me happy. What a beautiful record. I love her voice and the production on this thing is really clean with instruments coming in and out to fill space but not take up too much space. It keeps her great voice at the forefront but if you pay attention to the instrumentals, it's also really interesting.

Great album, classic country

This is a really nice record. Nanci has a beautiful voice that is full of life and conveys such emotion with every word. I was not previously familiar with Nanci Griffith at all, but this was a very pleasant introduction. The music is gentle, combining various elements that harmonize so nicely together. Nanci's vocals laid over top complement the ensemble so well with her storytelling and shared life experiences. This project certainly has opened up my perspective to country music.

This was so sweet! Not really my type of music, so I probably won’t return to it, but I enjoyed my listen.

Super pleasant all around, interesting themes and lyrics and sublime steel guitar

Lovely, and I added a couple to favorites. Nice discovery.

Thank goodness for the likes of Nanci Griffith saviing '80s country music from its worst mainstreaming and commercializing impulses. This is a delight to hear – a voice so warm and inviting, sentiments so clear and nearly universal, and an artist doing her best (rather than trying too hard), with just enough high lonesome in the sound and subject matter to round it out.

Warm and authentic and thoughtful – one could listen to it all day (indeed, one has being doing so all weekend). Her voice is distinct and pleasant (to one's tastes, anyway) and uses it well. Her storytelling instincts are strong and the lyrics are fine, well above average, and the playing is most tasteful, perfectly suited to the material. What's not to like here? That said, one can't be sure which is her best album; there are several worthy candidates.

This was an awesome album. Like a Joni Mitchell meets small town country. Have we gotten more of her albums? We should.

Another really nice album! Country is another genre that's been a bit of a mixed bag on this list, but dang this one was cool. Never even heard of Nanci Griffith, but she's got a clear, strong voice and some solid songwriting. Not sure if I'd put this on a list like this, but dammit it's another great album to me. That's three four-stars in a row. Favorite tracks: The Last of the True Believers, More Than a Whisper, Banks of the Pontchartrain, One of These Days, The Wing & the Wheel. Album art: Really like this one, looks to be a vintage photo of a woman standing outside of a Woolworth's. I assume it's vintage because of the filtering but also because I don't think Woolworth's existed even in the '80s. If so, is that woman Nanci? Don't know, but I like the nostalgia. 4/5

Griffith is a consummate storyteller: her characters feel real and her worlds lived-in. It’s tempting to almost step inside her songs.

Really like this

Here’s a nice surprise. This is not my genre at all, but good song writing is good song writing.

Sweet country music. The first half was quite uplifting, not as moping as most country songs, which I appreciated. Stand-out: The Last Of The True Believers

great vibes. kinda made me think of the album equivalent of little women

It's fine. Clean production, very competent performances, a distinctive voice, though with a slightly off-puttingly juvenile quality, the flash of an edge here and there. Nothing remarkable, but totally listenable.

Sweet

Enjoyable