Nanci Griffith

Texas singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith came to prominence as a female equivalent to Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam during the classic-country revival that briefly swept mainstream country in the '80s. She didn't take quite so readily to the limelight, though, and after a bit of success in Nashville, she tried her hand at Linda Ronstadt-style pop, then went the covers route on 2006's Ruby's Torch. On 2009's The Loving Kind, the title track makes the case for marriage equality via the true story of a couple sentenced to prison in 1950s Virginia for violating the commonwealth's law against mixed-race marriages.

Updated 10/09/2009