Some years ago at a folk festival, Americana stalwart Sid Griffin found himself around a huge campfire with several other happy musicians, each of them jamming merrily away, sometimes in key, sometimes not. A rock guitarist from Virginia began playing ‘Femme Fatale’ by The Velvet Underground on his acoustic and when a banjo player joined in so did Griffin on his mandolin.

“The sound was very much like an old ballad from a back and white Gene Autry cowboy film,” recalls Griffin. “I remember thinking that one day I will record this song in that same cowboy/campfire style.” On his first solo album in a decade, 'The Journey From Grape To Raisin', he has finally done just that.

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Griffin considers ‘The Journey From Grape To Raisin’ to be his best ever work. “Following my previous solo album 'The Trick Is To Breathe', 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, who had suddenly became historically important with multiple reissues,” he states. "I also compiled and annotated ‘The Basement Tapes’ box set while working in the Bob Dylan office in New York City. All these projects took time away from my solo career.”

For his step back into solo recording Griffin realised it was a project that had to be special. “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. I also wanted old friends around me like Mark Fain of Kentucky Thunder and Tammy Rogers of the SteelDrivers, both Grammy Award winners.”

The eleven songs included on ‘The Journey From Grape To Raisin’ reflect on Griffin’s life in music and in doing so reflect on all our lives. Fate, romance, mortality, the aftermath of war and a quixotic poem to a fallen childhood friend are all to be found on the record. Each was recorded in pristine sound with crack Nashville players. No wonder Griffin says that this is his career high. For it truly is.

TRACK LISTING:
1. The Last Ten Seconds Of Life
2. When I’m Drinking I Think In Spanish
3. Not A Lot of Sand Left In The Glass
4. Don’t You Leave Me Too Soon
5. Femme Fatale
6. I Want To Be the Man (My Dog Thinks I Am)
7. Song For Ukraine No.2
8. Permanent Twilight
9. The First Of The Gang To Go
10. Son, Won’t You Teach Me To Waltz?
11. Why I Play Guitar

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“Griffin’s sound is a long love letter to stringed instruments. Lovely!”
THE OBSERVER

“A very talented musician and author who keeps the North American roots music torch burning brightly for all the world to see"
ROGER McGUINN - THE BYRDS

“A roots renaissance man”
BOB HARRIS - BBC RADIO 2

"Sid Griffin was playing Americana years before the term was invented”
BILLY BRAGG

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