Storms
A restless departure from her country-folk sound, Nanci Griffith's sixth album pulls together an unlikely group of studio aces--Bernie Leadon, Albert Lee, Phil Everly, and Fran Breen--to shape an electric folk-rock that somehow never swamps her original material. The title track was written by ex-husband Eric Taylor, but the rest of the album is vintage Griffith: message songs, small-town songs, redolent love songs. Producer Glyn Jones shows a debt to Daniel Lanois in the mysterious atmospherics of "Radio Fragile," and if the album as a whole never quite equals her best work,Stormsis a unique experiment, a sonic milestone in Griffith's career.--Roy Kasten