Rural and small town in the lyrics of Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith, folk-and-country music singer died on Friday.  She was an artist I followed closely in the 1990s and into the early 2000s.  News of her death sent me back to her work, which I listened to on Saturday.  One thing I noticed are the rural-themed lyrics, and I'm going to highlight a few here.  

The most obviously rural song, perhaps, is "Trouble in the Fields," which included these lines, which touch on urban use of the rural, rural difference, and the farm crisis of the 1980s, with a reference to the Dust Bowl era, too. 

Baby I know that we've got trouble in the fields
When the bankers swarm like locust out there turning away our yield
The trains roll by our silos, silver in the rain
They leave our pockets full of nothing
But our dreams and the golden grain

Have you seen the folks in line downtown at the station
They're all buying their ticket out and talking the great depression
Our parents had their hard times fifty years ago
When they stood out in these empty fields in dust as deep as snow
And all this trouble in our fields

If this rain can fall, these wounds can heal
They'll never take our native soil
But if we sell that new John Deere
And then we'll work these crops with sweat and tears
You'll be the mule I'll be the plow
Come harvest time we'll work it out
There's still a lot of love, here in these troubled fields

There's a book up on the shelf about the dust bowl days
And there's a little bit of you and a little bit of me
In the photos on every page
Now our children live in the city and they rest upon our shoulders
They never want the rain to fall or the weather to get colder

Then there was "Gulf Coast Highway," which highlighted seasonal and informal work, as well as attachment to place:

Gulf Coast Highway 

He worked the rails 

He worked the rice fields 

With their cool dark wells 

He worked the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico 

The only thing we've ever owned 

Is this old house here by the road 

And when he dies he says he'll catch 

Some blackbird's wing 

Then he will fly away to Heaven come 

Some sweet blue bonnet spring 

She walked through springtime 

When I was home The days were sweet 

The nights were warm 

The seasons change, the jobs would 

Come, the flowers fade 

This old house felt so alone 

When the work took me away 

And when she dies she says, she'll 

Catch some blackbirds wing 

Then she will fly away to Heaven come 

Some sweet blue bonnet spring 

Highway 90 The jobs are gone 

We tend our garden 

We set the sun 

This is the only place on earth 

Blue bonnets grow 

Once a year they come and go 

At this old house here by the road 

And when we die we say, we'll 

Catch some blackbirds wing 

Then we will fly away to Heaven come 

Some sweet blue bonnet spring

Lastly, I want to mention "Hometown Streets," which featured these lines that touch on lack of anonymity and nostalgia.  Here's the refrain and a verse:

I need a hometown street where the boys are pretty
And a friend is still a friend
I need a hometown street where the love you're given
Surely comes back 'round again
Hometown streets are paved in gold 

With faces that you've always known
But, you'll never see them
Until you pack your dreams and leave them
The one I loved has moved away
It's hot in this city
Hey, it's always late
Here in this place
Love doesn't get the time of day

After preparing this post, I noticed that the New York Times obituary for Griffith featured this subhead:  

Her best-loved songs were closely observed tales of small-town life, sometimes with painful details in the lyrics, but typically sung with a deceptive prettiness.