MUSIC: NANCI GRIFFITH: WITH THE LAUGHING VOICE

IN HER NEW CD, NANCI GRIFFITH FINDS DEPTHS IN SWEETNESS, AND A RAINBOW ON THE FAR SIDE OF DEATH

Rock fans in their chair days can recall a distant dawn when pop music was about having a good time--fun fun fun for sweet little 16 at the hop. But that was before guys who knew three guitar chords were dubbed artists and, as such, had to suffer out loud for their muse. Consumers of pop have become so used to dirges about life's rottenness, sung by grungesters crushed under the weight of money, fame, drugs and women, that any happy music seems like ad jingles. Even female singers, traditionally dainty types, got the message. Doesn't Alanis Morissette sound as if...

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