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This summer I found my new favorite female vocalist, Patty Griffin. Her first major-label CD “Living with Ghosts” came out in 1996 and she’s recorded several since then. Her beautiful voice and incredible songwriting talent have, for me, made her the synthesis of everything I love about all my other favorite female singer/songwriters.

For me, Patty Griffin is like mixing (in a reasonable semblance of order) Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, The Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell and a little Bonnie Raitt thrown in for good measure without their bad stuff. She’s got Sheryl Crow’s song-writing talent but sings way better, a voice almost as powerful as Joan Osborne’s but is much more prolific, the folk sensibility of the Indigo Girls but without all the depressing songs, and the political punch and wisdom of Joni Mitchell but applied to the modern day.

The characters she creates within the three to five minute span of a song are deeply, sometimes tragically flawed and beautifully human. The song “Chief” from “1,000 Kisses” is about a Native American Army veteran who wanders the streets, then examines how we’re all like him. In “Top of the World” which was also recorded by the Dixie Chicks is about a bitter old man looking back ruefully on his life. In “Long Ride Home” from Impossible Dream” a woman is riding home from her husband’s funeral and taking a hard look at their life together. Her rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s ”Stolen Car” gives fresh life to the character in the song as he looks back on his failed relationship.

Most of Griffin’s songs are powerful ballads but her forays into other styles are also exceptional. Many songs have a gospel feel. (”Love Throw a Line” and “Standing” from Impossible Dream”) She even steps completely out of her folk shell to rock out in 1998’s “Flaming Red.”

Many of her songs also have subtle and, sometimes overt social overtones. A brief look at her discography reveals that her heart is in the right place - including benefits for land mine victims and survivors of the deadly tsunami of 2005. A beautiful voice, great songs, and good politics…. who could ask for more?

Although “1,000 Kisses” is my favorite CD, if I were stranded on a deserted Island with only one Patty Griffin CD to listen to, I’d have to pick her 2003 live album “A Kiss in Time.” Her CD’s are all phenomenal from start to finish, including her most recent “Children Running Through” which came out in February.

Here’s the video from my favorite song, “Rain.”

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Have you just discovered an artist or group and wondered where they’ve been all your life?

Technorati Tags: Patty Griffin, Living with Ghosts, Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, The Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, 1, 000 Kisses, Bruce Springsteen’s, Impossible Dream, Flaming Red, A Kiss in Time, Children Running Through

Filed under: Music on February 17th, 2007