Tracks:
Trouble In The Fields
From A Distance
I Don't Wanna Talk About Love
Deadwood
Love At The Five And Dime
Listen To The Radio
Gulf Coast Highway
I Wish It Would Rain
Ford Econoline
So Long Ago
If Wishes Were Changes
The Wing And The Wheel
Late Night Grande Hotel
It's Just Another Morning Here
Drive-In Movies And Dashboard Lights
There's A Light Beyond These Woods
Outbound Plane
It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go

Performer Notes:

• Personnel includes: Nanci Griffith (vocals, acoustic guitar); Phil Everly (vocals); Patrick Alger (acoustic & high-string guitars); Rick West (acoustic guitar); Lloyd Green (dobro & steel guitars); Danny Flowers (electric slide guitar, background vocals); Phillip Donnelly, John Stewart (guitar); Bela Fleck (banjo); Mark O'Connor (fiddle, violin, viola, mandolin, acoustic guitar); John Catching (cello); James Hooker (piano, keyboards, synthesizer); John Jarvis (piano); Denny Bixby, Emory Gordy (bass); Rick Marotta, Russ Kunkel (drums, percussion); Mac McAnally, Lucy Kaplansky, Eric Taylor, Albert Lee (background vocals).
• Producers: Glyn Johns, Peter Van Hooke, Rod Argent, Nanci Griffith, Tony Brown.
• Digitally remastered by Robert Stroughton (MCA Music Media Studios, North Hollywood, California).
• Personnel: Nanci Griffith (vocals, acoustic guitar); Mac McAnally, Phil Everly (vocals); Pat Alger (guitar, acoustic guitar); Jon Goin (guitar, slide guitar, classical guitar); Byrd Burton (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Mark O'Connor (acoustic guitar, mandolin, violin, fiddle, viola); Billy Joe Walker, Jr., Richard West (acoustic guitar); Bernie Leadon (electric guitar, slide guitar, mandocello); Jerry Donahue, John Stewart, Neill MacColl , Philip Donnelly (electric guitar); Danny Flowers (slide guitar); Lloyd Green (dobro); B?la Fleck (banjo); Pat Donaldson (mandocello, electric bass); John Catchings (cello); James Hooker (piano, keyboards, synthesizer); John Jarvis (piano); Rod Argent (synthesizer, drums); Roy M. "Junior" Husky (upright bass); David Hungate, Emory Gordy (electric bass); Peter Van Hooke, Russ Kunkel (drums, percussion); Fran Breen, Rick Marotta (drums); Pat McInerney (percussion).
• Photographers: David Gahr; Carla Gahr; Caroline Greyshock.
• Unknown Contributor Role: Mac McAnally.
• This single-CD compilation from 1993 features a dozen and a half sides from Texas singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith (guitar/vocals) during her four-year/five-disc deal with the Nashville branch of MCA Records, offering a well-balanced selection of her best-known and loved works as well as a few equally seminal deeper tracks. Lone Star State of Mind (1987) is signified by over a quarter of the album, including "Trouble in the Fields," "From a Distance," "Ford Econoline," and a remake of the heartfelt life saga "There's a Light Beyond These Woods (Mary Margaret)," which had originally appeared as the title composition from Griffith's debut LP, There's a Light Beyond These Woods (1978). Half of the tunes from the critical and commercial breakthrough Storms (1989) are featured on MCA Years: A Retrospective. "Listen to the Radio," "I Don't Want to Talk About Love," the international hit "It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go," "If Wishes Were Changes," and "Drive-In Movies and Dashboard Lights" are here, and each would respectively remain among the core seminal sides from her performance repertoire. One Fair Summer Evening (1988) -- Griffith's first live album -- is meagerly represented with Eric Taylor's (who is also Griffith's ex-husband) "Deadwood, South Dakota." Sadly, the hauntingly beautiful "More Than a Whisper" is not on this collection. By contrast, a healthy sampling of her next studio release, Little Love Affairs (1988), is included with "Outbound Plane" and "I Wish It Would Rain" as well as the deeper "So Long Ago" and "Gulf Coast Highway."
• Although the uniformly excellent Late Night Grande Hotel (1991) would be her final full-length release on MCA, Griffith goes out in style with help from a notable knob-tweaker, former Zombies' leader Rod Argent. While "Just Another Morning Here" and the title song, "Late Night Grande Hotel," are incorporated, sadly absent is her stellar rendition of Tom Waits' "San Diego Serenade" or the dark and powerful "The Sun, the Moon & the Stars." There are several anthologies available from Nanci Griffith's mid- to late-'80s and early-'90s material, and without question, this is an adequate compilation. However, From a Distance: The Very Best of Nanci Griffith (2002) includes an additional four selections, while the double-CD package Complete MCA Studio Recordings (2003) has all four long-players as well as three bonus selections -- which make their first domestic North American appearance. That said, however, MCA Years: A Retrospective is more than sufficient for the average listener. ~ Lindsay Planer

Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Country: USA

Studio/Live: Studio

Guest Artist: Bela Fleck; Lucy Kaplansky; Albert Lee; Mark O'Connor; John Stewart; John Jarvis; Phil Everly; Mac McAnally

Release Date: 26 October, 1993

Label: MCA (USA)

Dimensions: 14 x 14 x 0.6 centimeters (0.04 kg)