Photo: Blue Country Girl-Nancy Griffith will sing amid the rose-scented breezes on the lawn at Galante Vineyards on Sunday, Sept. 1.

With a voice that''s little-girl sweet beneath a patina of smoke and bourbon, Nanci Griffith, who headlines Galante Vineyards'' Summer Sounds'' Benefit Concert on Sunday, is one of the most distinctive singers around, as well as a poignant songwriter. Although she describes her music as "folkabilly," that description seems too narrow. With a solid country base to her music, Griffith shifts through a spectrum of music that ranges from songs with jazz overtones through pop and into rock.

The Austin, Texas, native began her career in the late ''60s as a 14-year-old folk singer, chaperoned by her "West Texas liberal" parents. The fusion of politics and music is something that has never left Griffith. She''s active with the Campaign For a Landmine Free World, a project sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America. In January, 2000, she went to Vietnam and Cambodia, performing and touring the hospitals and medical centers.

Griffith describes the trip as being a moving experience and says it inspired one of the songs on her last album, 2001''s Clock Without Hands. The trip gave Griffith a chance to see the country that so affected the life of her former husband, songwriter Eric Taylor, who is a veteran of the Vietnam war. In "Traveling Through This Part of You," Griffith sings, "You were an American boy/Whose innocence was lost here in the war/And I wear your scars/While traveling through this part of you..."

Last year, Griffith got a chance to bring her music and message to Washington, D.C., when she performed at the annual St. Patrick''s Day luncheon, attended by President Bush, Ireland''s Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, First Minister of Northern Ireland Gerry Adams, Colin Powell and others. After performing four of her songs, Griffith and VVAF vice president John Terzano were able to discuss their concerns about the use of landmines with the assembled dignitaries.

Nanci Griffith and the Blue Moon Orchestra. 1-6pm. Galante Vineyards, 18181 Cachagua Rd., Carmel Valley. $40 (lawn); $80 (table). 659-2649.