I REMEMBER attending the Peterborough festival and seeing what was probably Nanci Griffiths’ first appearance in Britain.

Although I enjoyed her set, I know there were some in the audience who wanted a “more authentic country sound”. If the same folk had heard her when she appeared a few month later with a full band at The Riverside venue in Newcastle they would have changed their minds… especially as she became one of the singer/songwriter greats. Her new album shows why she has gained thousands of fans on both sides of the pond. The title track tells the true story of how love triumphed over US social injustice which lasted until 1967. Mildred and Richard Loving were a mixed-race couple who were put in jail when they married in 1958, but their case eventually reached the Supreme Court, where state laws against interracial marriage were struck down. “I read Mildred Loving’s obituary in The New York Times and it just floored me,” says Griffith. Her live shows are a treat and she appears at The Sage Gateshead on February 8. Box Office: 0191-443-4661.