Antsy Griffith

Austin’s Nanci Griffith is holed up in Nashville recording Blue Roses From the Moon(s) (Elektra), which should be in stores this spring. The album’s release coincides with the tenth anniversary of Griffith’s first collaboration with her band, the Blue Moon Orchestra, and features guest appearances by Buddy Holly’s old band, the Crickets, as well as members of Hootie and the Blowfish, who performed a memorable set with her on an episode of MTV’s Unplugged.…Fort Worth’s Toadies leap into the studio this winter—possibly in Austin—to work on the follow-up to their 1994 hit record Rubberneck (Interscope). The amplified amphibians’ new album, as yet untitled, will be produced by Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary, who did the same recently for the Meat Puppets and Supersuckers.…Two Gulf Coast veterans come roaring back early next year. In January alabaster guitar blaster Johnny Winter, formerly of Beaumont, will cut a live album in cozy New York clubs for Virgin/Pointblank/CPW. And Orange bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown is recording a new album for Verve that revisits his roots in swing and the big-band sound. A spring release is planned.