Essentials: The Top Ten Patty Griffin Songs

Ah! She who can get to the parts of a person’s psyche that other singers can’t reach! Patty Griffin can sing anything – she can do folk and blues and gospel and she sure can rock out – she can croon a la jazz chanteuse or sing a beautiful love song in Spanish.  Her voice is a thing of wonder – slightly reedy, incredibly emotive and very expressive, it can whisper and soar according to the requirements of the song, and she uses this wonderful instrument to great effect interpreting the songs she writes.

Griffin writes about anything and everything  – love, loss, death, family life, middle age, politics, gun violence, religion, her mother, childhood memories and so on. Written either in the first person (sometimes clearly about herself, sometimes by taking on the guise of another person) or in the third person (where she inhabits the lived experience of that person) she explores pain and suffering, occasionally joy, often tedium and depression,  everyday stories of little life events.

Griffin was born in Old Town, Maine (the youngest of 7 children), grew up there in her early years and then gravitated to Boston to join the rock crowd, a reflection of the music she listened to at home in her brother’s record collection. She married briefly in her early 20s and spent years playing the coffee houses, whilst waitressing,  until she was noticed by A & M Records. They listened to a demo tape of the album that became her debut ‘Living with Ghosts’, decided it was overproduced, and sent her back to re-record it with a more stripped-down backing. It was released in 1996 when Griffin was thirty-two; it was hoped to kickstart her recording career. Sadly her sophomore album ‘Flaming Red’, pretty much an out-and-out rock and roll record, was very poorly promoted and the third album ‘Silver Bell’ was lost entirely when her record company was bought out (it was released eventually in 2013).

However, Griffin’s songs were gaining traction (The Chicks dipped into her work a number of times) and when ATO picked up her contract she went into a 3-album run of some of the most moving and glorious music of the Americana era. She enlisted the best musicians (Emmylou Harris was a regular harmony singer and described her music thus  “Patty Griffin says the thing we’re all saying about love and death and longing, but she says it in a completely new way. She opens up whole new wounds—in the best possible way. It’s that hurt where you have to go to that place you want to be hurt.” She then recorded a gospel album (‘Downturn Church), followed it with an album dealing extensively with the end of her father’s life (‘American Kid‘), and another stripped-down quasi-political one (‘Servant of Love‘).

Griffin then battled breast cancer after her breakup with Robert Plant, who had recruited her as backing singer in his re-formed Band of Joy and with whom she had a 4-year liaison. In 2016 she underwent extensive treatment for her cancer which had a considerable effect on her voice, and it was not until 2019 that she released a self-titled album that reflected her battle with the disease. She said at the time “I think at first I was just so glad to get anything out and when I could croak anything out I thought, well this might be it, this might be all you get. So you better learn how to work with it in an effective way”

She’s won two Grammies (the latest for ‘Patty Griffin‘, the album she released after recovering from cancer and which is largely based on cancer (hers and the nation’s)) and and been nominated a further seven times. There is no doubt that she ranks among the top singer-songwriters of the Americana era – as a number of critics have observed ‘she is peerless‘.  Her songs have been included in dozens of TV and film soundtracks.

To pick just 10 songs from her catalogue of 11 albums (she has also released three live albums), any one of which contains at least three or four certifiable masterpieces, is just an impossible task, and it occurred to me to stretch the parameters of the article, but that would mean a minimum 30 songs, if not more.  Anyway, dear reader, read on and I am sure that many of you will challenge my choice of the best of Patty Griffin; these below are the ones that have resonated most with me over the years as I have enjoyed the ride with her music. And forgive the lyric extracts under each selection, but they are so powerful, made more so by seeing them in print. And don’t forget – for these ten songs there are ten just as good lurking in the Griffin catalogue, and then ten more, just as good again. Explore and be drawn to her brilliance.

Number 10=: ‘Where I Come From’  (‘Patty Griffin’ 2019)

From her self-titled album released in 2019, the one where you hoped all would be well after her breast cancer treatment and you breathed great sighs of relief when you realised that all her faculties were intact, including that wonderful voice, albeit with a bit at the top missing. This is a great song reminiscing about a town from one’s youth that you lived in but wanted to leave, in serious decline yet a marvellous place to visit in the fall when the colours came alive – “The mills closed down long ago and so We’re way past unemployment Like a bad joke somebody told on our town For their enjoyment September sun Colors boldly flying In pretty reds, orange, gold and brown Most beautiful As the light is dying Most beautiful As the day goes down”

Wonderful accompaniment, as so often, by David Pulkingham

Number 10: ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone’ (‘American Kid’ 2013).

All right, I cheated a little as I could not leave this song out, a mesmeric, slow and rather melancholic look at death and the afterlife as Griffin contemplates the impending death of her father. His aura reverberates throughout the album- “And the moon will be high, bright as a pearl /Shining through my window on the dark side of the world /And I’ll be thinking of you, dancin’ somewhere /The way you were back then, the moonlight in your hair”

Number 9: ‘Rider of Days’ (‘Servant of Love’ 2015)

Sung in a rather more reserved voice than usual, this track seems to explore Griffin’s emotions after her split with Robert Plant reflecting on her love but surviving the loss and treating it as part of a learning process. Beautiful acoustic guitar interplay (with David Pulkingham – the album version has Shawn Colvin on beautiful background vocals),  “My darling I miss you /And I always will/I dream of you always /Hill after hill I am but a rider/A rider of days /The sun and the clouds /How they dance and they sway /And reach for the shadows/Heading over the bay /In a little while/ Be on my way”

Number 8:  ‘Rain’ (‘1000 Kisses’ 2002).

An emotional tour-de-force from an album full of them, about holding on to a relationship that is effectively over despite the heartbreak that it brings. Griffin has often used short words, repeated throughout a song, for emphasis, as she does here. Rain is used here as a metaphor for tears cried for a lost relationship – “Sometimes a hurt is so deep deep deep /You think that you’re gonna drown /Sometimes all I can do is weep weep weep /With all this rain falling down /Strange how hard it rains now /Rows and rows of big dark clouds /When I’m holding on underneath this shroud”. 

Number 7:  ‘Burgundy Shoes’  (‘Children Running Through’ 2007 ).

A stunning song about childhood memories, such as waiting for a bus with her mother to go to Bangor (Griffin was born in Maine). Griffin’s extraordinary ability to create an almost perfect chorus through the use of just one repeated word is magical– in this case ‘sun’, bringing light into the song (unusual since her songs are predominantly sad) “The bus driver smiles, a dime and a nickel /We climb on our seats, the vinyl is cold / “Michelle ma belle”, the song that you loved then /You hold my hand and sing to yourself / Sun sun /Sun sun/ Sun sun sun sun”. A song guaranteed to bring tears to the eyes of those with heartfelt maternal memories.

Number 6: ‘Up to the Mountain’ (‘Children Running Through’ 2007)

Another track from one of Griffin’s brilliant run of three albums this is her take on the “I’ve been to the mountain top” speech by Martin Luther King. Griffin has described King as brave, partly for the oration of this speech and she has claimed she never felt brave until she wrote this song after King’s assassination. It has a cinematic reach using all kinds of imagery to reflect King’s words.  Although recorded by many artists, most notable by Solomon Burke and Kelly Clarkson, Griffin’s version is definitive, a slow burn that never goes over the top, yet captures Griffin’s vocal range perfectly  “The peaceful valley Just over the mountain /The peaceful valley Few come to know /I may never get there Ever in this lifetime/But sooner or later It’s there I will go /Sooner or later It’s there I will go”

Number 5: ‘Be careful’ (‘1000 Kisses’ 2002) 

Another brilliant song about women’s vulnerability, recognition that some girls aren’t exposed to the suffering of others but we have to be nice to one another to get through “All the girls that you’ll never see Forever a mystery /All the girls with their secret ways All the girls who have gone astray/Be careful how you bend me /Be careful where you send me /Careful how you end me/ Be careful with me/Be careful how you bend”. Another example of the repetition she uses for emphasis, in this case ‘careful’ and ‘all the girls’.

Number 4: ‘Heavenly Day’ (‘Children Running Through‘ 2007).

From an album fundamentally looking back to childhood days, this is a song about her dog and the pleasure that can come from the emotional change from miserable to happy, either occasioned by the weather or, more particularly, by her dog – her symbol of peace –   “Oh, heavenly day /All the clouds blew away/Got no trouble today with anyone/The smile on your face,/ I live only to see /It’s enough for me, baby, it’s enough for me/Oh, heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day”.And again there is that repetition drawing you in like a mantra that is so addictive.

Number 3:  ‘When it Don’t Come Easy’ (‘Impossible Dream’ 2002)

A powerful exploration of the need for commitment to one another, the dedication of friends helping others in trouble, the devastation of love in difficult times amid the ups and downs in love and life – “So many things that I had before /That don’t matter to me now/Tonight I cry for the love that I’ve lost/And the love I’ve never found /When the last bird falls /And the last siren sounds/Someone will say what’s been said before /Some love we were looking for”. Feel the emotion in this version by Melissa Etheridge, with help from the writer. Her backstory is very moving.

Number 2: ‘Top of the World’ (‘Impossible Dream’ 2002).

A beautiful lyrical achievement by Griffin , with a song written from the perspective of a father who may have just died, reflecting on the things he could have done and been for his daughter and regretting that with the passing of time he proved unable to resolve his failings “I don’t have to answer/Any of these questions/Don’t have no god to/Teach me no lessons/I come home in the evening/Sit in my chair/One night they called me for supper/But I never got up/I stayed right there/In my chair.” It seems as though in places her voice is a little fragile but this was just before she was diagnosed with cancer.

Number 1:  ‘Useless Desires’ (‘Impossible Dream‘ 2002 )

My favourite track (just), from one of Griffin’s two best albums. This is taken at a slightly livelier pace than a lot of Griffin’s songs about failed relationships. This is probably because in the end she is able to let go of her past – goodbye to a one-sided relationship, goodbye to old friends, to old buildings in her past  “Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye old friend /You wanted to be free /And somewhere beyond the bitter end is where I wanna be /How the sky turns to fire /Against the telephone wire/ And even I’m getting tired of useless desires”