Grace Bernadette Griffith (née Sisson; October 30, 1956 – June 5, 2021) was a folk and Celtic singer based in Washington, D.C. She has been honored with multiple Wammie awards by the Washington Area Music Association.^[1] In 1998, she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.^[2] Griffith died at the age of 64 following complications from Parkinson's disease on June 5, 2021.^[3]

Biography

Griffith was raised in a family of ten children on a small farm in Southern Maryland. At a young age she began singing and accompanying herself on guitar playing in small coffeehouse stages, mentored by her sister Maura. Griffith's parents encouraged her to follow a practical career. Putting her musical hobby to one side she graduated from the University of Maryland in 1978 with a degree in physical therapy and embarked on a career as a physical therapist at what is now the Charles Regional Medical Center. Several years after her college studies she was invited to sing for a local Irish band in Washington DC called “The Hags” and toured the college circuit for two years. Her successor in that band was to become the famed singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter. In 1987 Griffith formed a duo called “Hazlewood” with songwriter Susan Graham White. They produced some independent releases and ultimately appeared at the 1991 Philadelphia Folk Festival.^[4]

Returning to her Celtic roots, Griffith formed an East Coast Celtic group called Connemara which she formed with fiddler/arranger Cathy Palmer along with harpist Tracie Brown. They were also joined on the albums by guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Zan McLeod. They released two albums, firstly Beyond Horizon in 1993 and Siren Song in 1995. Other musicians to participate on the projects were harpists Sue Richards, Julia Lane, Carol Thompson and Mary Fitzgerald along with box player Billy McComiskey and Jody Marshall on hammered dulcimer.^[5] In 1993 as a solo artist Griffith released her debut album Every Hue and Shade which came out on her own independent label.^[6]

When Blix Street Records based in California were looking for an artist to succeed Ireland's Mary Black as their main project in the U.S., they signed Griffith on a long-term recording contract. They revamped her album Every Hue and Shade which became her label debut called Grace. In 1996 Blix Street also licensed the two Connemara recordings for distribution.^[4] Griffith completed two further albums with Minstrel Song, released in 2000, and followed by Sands of Time in 2003. Her album My Life in 2006 drew critical acclaim extending beyond her home base of Washington D.C.

Griffith has been called a singer's singer. One of her keen fans of her singing was the late Eva Cassidy. When Griffith came to know Eva's work, she encouraged Blix Street to sign her as well, which they did just after the release of her album Grace.^[4] Eva Cassidy was first and foremost a music lover sitting in the front row watching her musical heroes perform in Washington. She was also an avid fan of Griffith's, who spotted Eva's face at several of her concerts during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Griffith got to hear about Cassidy's talents and in 1996 made a drive to Potomac to see the then mystery girl at a small club in Alexandria, VA. By this time the Washington Area Association had awarded Griffith more than a dozen "Wammies", including “Best Female Vocalist” and “Best Album”. In September 1996 hearing of Eva Cassidy's illness she went to visit her. Griffith made a telephone call to Bill Straw, the president of Blix Street Records, explaining the situation, and two days later Griffith sent a tape of Eva's Live at Blues Alley album to him. On that tape was a recording of "Fields of Gold"; the song became Cassidy's big hit in what has become a phenomenal posthumous career. "All the colors of the rainbow, all life's palette of beauty and sadness and sweet passion and eternity — it was all there in that voice that came from that heart and those hands" said Griffith in interview when talking about Eva.^[7]

At the memorial service for Eva at Greenbelt Park, Griffith performed a haunting Celtic-tinged version of "Golden Thread".

During the next seven years the Eva Cassidy story unfolded whilst Griffith continued to toil in relative obscurity. In one of life's ironies, in 1998 Griffith was diagnosed with the degenerative neurological condition Parkinson's disease.^[8] It affected her life profoundly, but, although her voice was affected, she could still sing, but she had to give up playing whistle, guitar, and dulcimer and relied on musical friends to support her.^[4] In 2006 she released her fourth album "My Life", including two songs that held close family ties for her. "Bendemere's Stream" was a song she remembered her parents singing, and "Passing Thoughts" was written by her older brother, Fred Sisson. Sisson had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease six years before Griffith, and embraced photography and poetry as a way to celebrate life and find new freedoms in his diminishing mobility. They shared a bond through their creativity and shared diagnoses, spending many hours together singing, talking and discussing poetry. Sisson died of Parkinson's disease on March 2, 2006.^[9]

At the World Parkinson's Congress in February 2006 she performed If I Can’t Dance from her album My Life, dedicating it to other fellow Parkinson's Disease sufferers.^[10]

In 2006 Griffith underwent pioneering surgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital for the implantation of electrodes for deep brain stimulation. She benefited from the then experimental procedure and has since become an effective speaker and educator on Parkinson's. Over a period of time as the batteries ran down, her voice diminished. In March 2010, her doctors, though unable to assure her of a positive result, changed and upgraded the batteries, and it proved successful. Griffith had more energy and more voice. Griffith sang at the opening of the second World Parkinson Congress (September 28 – October 1, 2010) held in Glasgow, Scotland. Accompanied by Mark Cowan on guitar, she performed a traditional tune “The Seasons” (Scots pastoral song) along with “Sailing”, which was a hit for Rod Stewart. Griffith also spoke at a Music & Parkinson's Disease Workshop on the last day of the event.^[11][12]

On September 28, 2010, Blix Street Records released the compilation album Sailing with the intention that it would elevate this relatively unknown artist to her rightful place among her peers.^[13]

For the week commencing September 3, 2011, Griffith's song "My Life" was added to the BBC Radio 2 B Playlist.^[14]

Musical career

Quotes

• "Fans of Southern Maryland-bred singer Grace Griffith consider each of her recordings a blessing, and understandably so. After all, it's not often that one encounters a voice as lovely or as affecting as hers“ - Mike Joyce (Washington Post Reviewer).^[16]
• “This is Grace Griffith, wait till you hear this song it’s absolutely beautiful. Tell me what you think of it I’ve only just heard it, absolutely stunning". - Michael Ball (Singer, BBC Radio 2 and TV presenter).^[17]

Discography

• 1996: Grace
• 2000: Minstrel Song
• 2003: Sands of Time
• 2006: My Life
• 2010: Sailing
• 2014: Passing Through

References

External links

• website
• website
• Grace Griffith bio at Blix Street Records