Wednesday, April 19, 2017

CD Odyssey Disc 995: Patty Griffin

I'm not feeling great tonight after watching my Boston Bruins lose again, and falling behind 3-1 in our playoff series with the Ottawa Senators. Being a sports fan can be hard on the spirit.

I had a lovely weekend, though and got a lot of music listening in. I did things other than just walking and painting while I listened though, so while I enjoyed a lot of music it wasn’t reviewable (see Rule #4 to the right).

But now we’re back on track, so here’s another music review for your reading pleasure.

Disc 995 is…American Kid
Artist: Patty Griffin

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? This is an 1880 photo entitled “Charley, a slave boy from New Orleans”. Charley is showing remarkable patriotism considering its 17 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and he’s still a slave boy. If it were me I’d be asking the photographer to please take the negative to the local police since slavery is frickin’ illegal!

How I Came To Know It: I have been a fan of Patty Griffin for many years, and this was just me buying her new album when it came out and hoping for the best.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 7 of Patty Griffin’s 9 albums. I’m only without 1998’s “Flaming Red” and her 2010 gospel album, “Downtown Church.” I’m not missing either one, though; I just don’t want them. Of the 7 I have, I rank “American Kid” a respectable fourth.

Ratings: 4 stars

I hadn’t given this album much thought in the last couple of years. It recently captured the attention of my guitar teacher, Josh and while I didn’t just pull it down and review it – how would that be random? – when I rolled it I was intrigued to see what had caught his attention.

The first thing was the guitar work (there’s a shocker), and it is true that Patty Griffin is a gifted acoustic guitar player, who knows how to get a lot of layers of emotion out of her instrument. The same goes for her voice, which is as big and bold as ever on “American Kid”.

Griffin’s vocals burst out of her like every breath is breaking some pressure seal, but despite the explosion of sound she manages to sound smooth and controlled. There aren’t many people that can range around as much as she does and never feel pitchy. When she is off, she’s deliberately a little sharp in just the right places to evoke a little hurt. I’ll never understand how she is more famous for selling her songs to other artists (notably the Dixie Chicks) than for recording them herself.

As ever, Griffin has a talent for painting complex character studies with her music. On “Faithful Son” a man prays to God about a life lost to empty promises and a life of toil with little reward. Griffin cleverly paints this portrait with the details that are missing: what is the promise that held the man in place? Was it the quiet desperation of a man who married, had children, and never felt he found his true place in the world, or was it some lonely man who never had wife or kids? What matters is the lonely emptiness that Griffin paints in the man’s heart. He’s kept his promises to his God, but at the expense of any joy for himself. Also, the guitar work on this song is pretty dynamite.

Later Griffin will tell a more concrete tale of a soldier with PTSD on “Not a Bad Man” that reminds you the next time you see an old drunk lying on the road he isn’t just a stranger – he’s someone who may have a perfectly legitimate reason for being so broken.

It’s not all sadness and gloom, though. “Mom & Dad’s Waltz” is a happy tale of the duty we owe to our parents, and “Get Ready Marie” is a humorous song about a randy bridegroom, who gets drunk at his own wedding but still ends up with a playful and enduring love.

The album has the sad and thoughtful goodbyes of various kinds, including relationships on the rocks (“That Kind of Lonely”), soft songs of departure that hold the promise of a future reunion (“Highway Song”) and the more permanent farewell of death (“Ohio”).

Highway Song” is a duet with co-writer Robert Plant who continues his exploration of American folk music. It is a beautiful vocal performance where Plant blends his voice effortlessly with Griffin’s. I’d say Plant missed his musical calling except, you know, the whole Led Zeppelin thing also worked out pretty well.

My favourite song on the record is “That Kind of Lonely” which on an album full of variations on saying goodbye, is the most poignant. Griffin uses the image of a party that went on too long as the metaphor for a relationship ending:

“Every strand has come unwound
Every heart is all worn down
Everyone in this room wanted
To be somewhere else
So tonight I’ll find the key
And drive away a little early
It’s the last time I wanna be
That kind of lonely.”

Overall, the record has a stripped down production that serves the music beautifully, and lets Griffin’s vocals and guitar both shine in the mix. I didn’t fully appreciate this album when I first bought it, but it is fair to say I’ve come around.


Best tracks: Go Wherever You Wanna Go, Ohio, Faithful Son, Highway Song, 

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