Griff the Filker

Griff grew up playing piano and singing in various choirs. Both his parents had Masters' degrees in music. He was also in marching and concert bands in high school and college, and took up guitar in his early 50s in an act of rebellion against his classical-music upbringing.

He started taking guitar lessons with Blind Lemming Chiffon in 2023, who introduced him to the filk community by way of the Festival of the Living Rooms. In early 2024, Gabrielle Gold asked him to give a concert at OVFF 2024. Since then, he's chosen the name Griff the Filker, started writing a bunch of songs, has given concerts at various cons, and has eight albums either released or planned (mostly planned). Why "the Filker"? Because there's at least one other musician out there who goes by Griff, but he's the only Griff who does filk.

He's given his workshop Creating While Neurodivergent at multiple cons, and hopes to keep doing so. He and his husband, author Cozy Joe Petty, are also both published fiction writers (together and separately), and are owned by an obstreperous tortoiseshell cat named Molly. At his day job, he teaches college students various things about college and social stuff.

Griff and Cozy Joe live in Long Beach, California.

Website: https://griffthefilker.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrifftheFilker
Bandcamp: https://drgriff.bandcamp.com

Representative Work for the 2025 Pegasus Awards

The Road to Neverwhere (mp3)

Copyright © by Griff Sanford
All Rights Reserved - Used by Permission

The Road to Neverwhere
V1
Alice told me tales of how she used to be
A little girl escaping to where none can see
She said that she found Wonderland and told me true
She told me just exactly what I have to do

V2
Dorothy said how the road leads ever on
Holding to your friends as you are ever drawn
Toward the Emerald City and the witches' lair
Maybe you are walking into Neverwhere

CHORUS
Time to go to sleep; it's time for bed
Time to go and rest your weary head
Time for slumber, now it's time to dream
Time to let it go

Time for you to find the road to Neverwhere
They'll tell you all about it, but it's never there
Time to find the wind, the door, the mirror bright
Time for you to go

V3
Lucy told me of the lamp-post in the wood
Where once a tree of purity had grown and stood
She couldn't tell me more than that, she said to me
We all must find our own way to the Silver Sea

V4
Meg and Calvin told me of the tesseract
Such a scary name for such a simple act
It took them to the deepest, darkest ways of space
But both of them were yearning for a better place

CHORUS

V5
Time runs faster as I grow and change
Childhood runs behind me, oh, it's very strange
Sometimes I see the Cheshire smiling from a tree
Sometimes I just don?t know what to make of me

V6
I'm never sure if it is real or just a game
They chase the white stag down, so I must do the same
A rabbit hurries past me in a rushed affair
Will I ever figure out the road to Neverwhere?

CHORUS 2
Time to go to sleep; it's time for bed
Time to go and rest my weary head
Time for slumber, now it's time to dream
Time to let it go

Time for me to find the road to Neverwhere
They tell me all about it, but it's never there
Time to find the wind, the door, the mirror bright
Time for me to go

OUTTRO
Time for me to go
Don't look for me, it's time for me to go