Sid Griffin - The Journey From Grape To Raisin (2024) Hi-Res

While Sid Griffin can never be separated from the legend that is The Long Ryders (still riding by the way) he has several other feathers in his cap. A noted author, producer of numerous acclaimed radio and television shows and compiler of several astute compilations and reissues of country rock classics, there’s also his acclaimed bluegrass outfit, The Coal Porters (as with The Long Ryders, still going strong), a truly cosmic country album with Western Electric and then there’s his solo career with four albums under his belt.

“The Journey From Grape To Raisin” is Griffin’s first solo album in 10 years. He explains the delay thus, “After my previous solo album I became caught up in freelance writing for everyone from Cecil Sharpe House to Encyclopaedia Britannica and in archival work for my band The Long Ryders.” That said, it’s been well worth the wait as Griffin delivers a set of acoustic based songs which appear to be very personal in the main. He says of the songs that “Each one reflects on a part of my life and the incidents are true unless I changed the names to protect the innocent.” There are intimations of mortality embedded throughout, from the curious album title (one possibility is that it refers to a crossword clue, the answer being “shrivel”) to songs called ‘The Last Ten Seconds Of Life’ and ‘Not A Lot Of Sand In The Glass‘. Death and loss are addressed directly in an excellent spoken word piece, ‘First Of The Gang To Go’ which finds Griffin channelling Kerouac on a touching memorial to a fallen friend.

The album opens with a delicate touch on ‘The Last Ten Seconds Of Life’ as Griffin recalls skidding to avoid a deer on a late night car trip and the thoughts that flashed through his head before he regained control. It’s quite a gorgeous song and of course, Sid survived. On a livelier note there’s the fiddle skirled bluegrass delivery of ‘Not A Lot Of Sand In The Glass’ where Griffin acknowledges that he daily checks his greying hairs as he hears “Clocks a ticking, ticking way too fast” and reckons he owns “More yesterdays than tomorrows.” With Griffin’s top notch band of Nashville pickers driving the song along this reminds one of Gram Parsons’ more upbeat numbers. ‘Don’t You Leave Me So Soon’ meanwhile harks back to more introspective singer songwriters as Griffin wallows in a Dobro driven swoon.

‘Permanent Twilight’ is a powerful song about a war veteran, blinded and paralysed by shrapnel in Basra. Despite his condition he still believes in the cause he fought for. It’s the darkest moment on the album but it’s leavened by songs such as the lilting bluegrass excellence of ‘Son, Won’t You Teach Me To Waltz’, a song which recalls Guy Clark, and the knockabout tale of deceit on ‘When I’m Drinking I Think In Spanish’ while Griffin closes the album with a flourish on ‘Why I Play Guitar’. Embellished with a New Orleans like horn arrangement it comes across as Griffin’s raison d’être as he rambles brilliantly through a litany of musical heroes and dreams of playing Carnegie Hall. It closes with the words, “My mind is quite at ease now, I speak through my guitar, I play to keep my sanity, I don’t need to be a star.” Too late, Sid, as you are a star in our books.