Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Patty GriffinEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-02-06
Music Label: ATO Records
Soundtracks:
- You'll Remember
- Stay On The Ride
- Trapeze
- Getting Ready
- Burgundy Shoes
- Heavenly Day
- No Bad News
- Railroad Wings
- Up To The Mountains (MLK Song)
- I Don't Ever Give Up
- Someone Else's Tomorrow
- Crying Over
Free Music Notes for Children Running Through
Free Music Review: A Songwriter's Songwriter
Hit: 5 Stars
I read recently that Patty Griffin has, over the years, been made to feel somewhat uncomfortable by her image as a "sensitive singer-songwriter." That may be why it's not until Track 3 of this remarkable CD that she even enters folk-balladeer territory, and even then (on "Trapeze") she remains at a 3rd person remove for the time being. The very sequencing of the album suggests a kind of reserve: she's not strictly about soul baring "confessionalism"--though if you stick around long enough she'll get there too.
The briefer-than-brief opener "You'll Remember" has the "folkie" singer-songwriter playing cabaret singer. The sentiment may be confessional enough, oh, I'll admit that, but she's cool and coy and sensual as all get-out. And when she does get out of that track after a mere 2:00 minutes (and leaving the listener begging for more), suddenly we're in the midst of an ambling, shambling shaggy dog song called "Stay On the Ride" which almost seems designed to show ol' Sheryl Crow just how such things are done.
So we get to Track 3, "Trapeze," and Emmylou's on board for this one, but it's OK, cuz Patty's already established her street cred, her busline cred AND her supperclub cred. And like I said, it's not really ABOUT Patty's personal life and her pain--except it always is, isn't it? Emmylou's back-up is as heartbreaking as ever. Except that--before I read the credits--I was wonderin' if Patty wasn't double tracking and doing a more than credible Emmy immi (-tation, that is).
That song is so dam sensitive, you just gotta follow up with as much of a rocker as you can muster. Patty does just that with "Getting Ready," a track some will find a bit of a thowaway, but one that fans and other empathetic souls will realize just has to be included to pave the way for the CD's ultimate sensitive ballad and tear-jerker "Burgundy Shoes." The rocking-out before the confessionalism is just plain brilliant tactically, and its effect will be lost on anyone who ALWAYS plays CDs on random select. Hey, it's even got feedback.
Ah, but "Burgundy Shoes" will melt the heart of even the most savage of beasts. I used to ride that bus from Old Town to Bangor meself, Patty, and I think I might have seen you there. Your mother really was "the most pretty lady in the world." And my G-d, that chorus "sun sun sun sun" is beautiful. (Enya, eat your heart out.) If you've been waiting for introspection on this record, children, this is where it begins.
And then it continues with one classic track after another. I mean, does it get more heavenly than "Heavenly Day"? Tricky, but not overly clever poetic devices--internal rhyme that's not at all clumsy, and run-on phrases that should be but aren't. Same kind of devices are put to pretty durn good effect on "No Bad News," that sounds a bit like upbeat Indigo Girls. Pretty close to "fine," I'd say.
Back to Maine with railroad wings. Did you know there are once again trains to Maine these days? I took one home a few years ago from Poughkeepsie. Took 12 hours and you had to go south to go north, but we Mainers never expect things to be easy. And "Railroad Wings" was obviously not an easy song to write. It's gorgeous, but it must've cost her blood. "There's things you don't know you know," ah, Patty Griffin, you know me heart so well it's scary. "As far as I can tell most everthing means nothing/except some things mean everything." Stop, stop, you're killing me with these lines. Can you cut any deeper?
"Up to the Mountain (MLK Song), in which Patty seemingly adopts Rev. King's voice actually comes as a relief, although it's heavy duty enough for Solomon Burke to have recorded. I need to check out Mr. Burke's version, but as much of an honor as it must have been for Ms Griffin, it's hard to imagine any version being more soulful as her own. But she is taking on someone else's voice.
The trilogy of (let's admit it) confessional tracks that close out the album, though, should slay just about anyone with the courage and the openheartedness to listen. "I Don't Ever Give Up," "Someone Else's Tomorrow" and "Crying Over" pack such an emotional wallop that I can only hope to someday be able to talk about them.
Right now, well, I'm listening as I type and I'm melting I'm melting I'm melting...
Children Running Through Poster
Patty Giffin's latest offering, is co-produced by Griffin and Mike McCarthy (spoon) captures the voice and words of one of the most important singer songwriters of our time. Lush, dynamic, and provocative, the two time Grammy nominated artist resonates with time Grammy nominated artist resonates with songs that are both contemporary and timeless. The set includes 12 new Griffin penned tunes including a guest vocal appearance by Emmylou Harris on the enchanting 'Trapeze.' Patty's work has been and continues to be revered by a broad array of contemporaries, including, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Dave Mathews, Natalie Manes, Kelly Clarkson and Jessica Simpson, who's recent single is the Patty Classic, 'Let Him Fly' and Griffin appears as a guest vocalist on the new Solomon Burke effort.On her fifth studio CD, folk-rocker Patty Griffin employs three timeless themes--childhood, flight, and death--to craft her most musically diverse and accessible album yet. But while moving through jazz, beatnik, classic and modern folk, gospel R&B, Americana, and moody piano ballad, Griffin keeps her backing quiet and spare, all the more to showcase the power of her deft storytelling and the bell clarity of her unadorned soprano. On song after song, the characters who waft through her experience are on the move, chasing one thing and fleeing another--on trains, ships, buses, in cars, even on the aerialist's bar--ultimately trading an ending of one kind for a new beginning and transference. Sometimes--as on the Rickie Lee Jones-ish "Stay on the Ride," where an old man with no name answers an existential urge for going--they don't even know what it is. "Trapeze," the most resonant offering, follows an aging circus performer who'd rather work without a net than take her chances in love. Here, Emmylou Harris adds one of her most aching harmony lines to Griffin's exquisite, ethereal lead, while in the next track, "Getting Ready," the singer turns a 180, laying a sneering Dylanesque vocal over a fiercely scrubbed acoustic guitar and an occasional dissonant kiss-off. "Baby, baby, you were my drug/And I was just your cigarette," she drones knowingly. One suspects that particular object of her affections will soon regret it. --Alanna Nash
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