1000 Kisses is one of my all-time favorite albums. If I play it for someone for the first time, I inevitably sound like a broken record…“Ok, this next one is my FAVORITE”…every single song.
Moses, Every Little Bit, Mad Mission, Poor Man’s House, Tony, One Big Love…all of them are high on my personal list.
I just downloaded her latest album Impossible Dreams, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, as I’m marinating myself in her old stuff first.
Patty’s ability to write songs that beautifully extract the essence of “The Common Man/Woman” is unearthly. She simply personafies folk music.
I hope you have Living with Ghosts, honeydewgrrl. An absolutely perfect album. There are also live acoustic versions of Mary, Let Him Fly and Every Little Bit floating around out there that are even better than the studio cuts. Happy hunting.
I do indeed have Living with Ghosts. I have everything except the live album A Kiss In Time as of about an hour ago (yay iTunes!). What the hell…I’m just going to grab that one too. The comments on the iTunes site said the production quality wasn’t so great, though it was a great performance, so I had hesitated spending $40 in 5 minutes, as opposed to $30. I have a feeling that’s the album where the live versions you mention came from.
This is the second time I’ve purchased the first 3 albums, as I’ve lost them to various ex girlfriends over the years. Grumble.
Patty Griffin is one of my ultimate favorite artists. She is incredible. I own all her work except for A Kiss In Time, and I’ve probably listened to and internalized her music more than I’ve listened to any other artist’s.
I’ve been lucky enough to see her twice live. First time was at a local bar at a CD release/Best Buy industry party for “Flaming Red”. I had never heard her before and really dug her acoustic numbers. I got “FR” for free and went out and bought “Living with Ghosts” the next day. Her voice is so powerful on that album that I forget that it’s just her and a guitar and that’s it.
After “Flaming Red”, she recorded an album called “Silver Bell”. It’s pretty much in the same vein as “FR”, but it never got released officially. Some of the tracks have made it on to her more recent albums in the same form like “Mother of God” and “Top of the World” (which was covered by the Dixie Chicks as well as her song “Let Him Fly”). My email is in my profile if you wanna know more about Silver Bell.
The second time I saw her was at a guitar pull. She was on stage with Dar Williams, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, and Shawn Colvin. Which was just “WOW”. She’s a great stand out artist and has an Emmylou character when she does back-up.
One other great thing about her music is that it’s very accessible to play on the guitar. “Moses” is pretty much just the three chords D A G capoed at the second fret. (Dsus2 in there too, but that’s just a pull-off).
My favorite singer/songwriter! So now you all are my favorite posters, by association.
I’ve seen her perform a few times. It’s a mixed feeling as time goes on; every time she plays in the Boston area, the venue gets bigger which is good for her, but there is less intimacy.
I have all her CDs to date, and I agree that “1000 Kisses” is where she really hit her stride, but the nice thing is that each CD has a different feel, and brings out different emotions.
I wouldn’t worry about the production in “A Kiss in Time”; whatever is lacking is more than made up for by the excitement of the audience. I saw her perform at the Orpheum last spring, and she structured her concert to deliberately leave out those songs. It would have been nice to hear some of them, but we got to hear a lot of new music. She certainly isn’t standing still.
Incidentally, there are some unreleased CDs out there; “Silver Bell” and “Love From My Lips” (up to volume 4, I believe). If anyone gets ahold of them, I’d love a copy. For the moderators who are concerned about copyright violations, trading unreleased CDs is endorsed and encouraged on her website, but I haven’t had much luck getting anyone to make me copies to date. Incidentally, if you go to that site you can hear her sing “Moon River”, which she performed when I last saw her.
Forgot to add that I live in Seattle. Strange how hard it rains now, rows and rows of big dark clouds. Today is the 26th day in a row, in fact. That song has been playing in my head for weeks. I should go throw the CD on and listen to the real thing. Couldn’t hurt, maybe the sky’ll clear.
I saw her a few years ago at the Variety Playhouse here in Atlanta, in which there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Great little venue. It was while she was touring for 1000 Kisses and it was probably the best performance I’ve ever attended, by any artist. You could just feel that the audience was sucking it all in, leaning into every note with anticipation and relish. She even commented on the energy and rapt attention of the crowd, and how much she appreciated it.
I believe that her cover of Moon River is on the soundtrack for Elizabethtown. Also, according to iTunes, she has a song on a compilation album, “Dear Old Friend” on 13 Ways To Live. And she apparently joins Emily Gilkyson on her album Lost and Found.
I love the Dixie Chicks, and while I admit that I was introduced to Patty’s music through their and others’ covers (Martina McBride’s “Goodbye”, for example), my appetite for her own performances of her own music quickly became consuming.
Plynck and I seem to have the same approach, as I immediately have an affinity for any musician who either covers Patty’s music, or cites her as a primary influence.
