Oct

02

2008

10 people to listen to – #3 Patty Griffin

We have reached the downward spiral of counting down the top 10 singers to listen to in the folk/bluegrass/country genre. (These are in no certain order except who I think to put on the list). Artist number 3 is Patty Griffin.

The first thing I can say if you have never heard her – go buy an album – any album will do they are all excellent. I have listened to Patty for several years, but it was not until I saw her in concert earlier this year did I fall completely in love with her music. Here are a few pics from that show:

The hardest part about writing this post is trying to pick a favorite album or song – really it is kind of like asking what is your favorite finger or toe - you like them all. If I had to pick ‘ Living With Ghosts’ and ‘Children Running Through’ are my favorites but ‘Flaming Red’ and ‘100 Kisses’ are so close behind. The song ‘Forgiveness’ is one of the songs that comes on first when I hit my Patty playlist. The lyrics just ring so true.

We are swimming with the snakes
At the bottom of the well
So silent and peaceful in the darkness where we fell
But we are not snakes and what’s more
We never will be
And if we stay swimming here forever we will
Never be free

I heard them ringing the bells
In heaven and hell
They got a secret
They’re getting ready to tell
It’s falling from the sky
Calling from the graves
Open your eyes, boy, I think we are saved
Open your eyes, boy, I think we are saved
Let’s take a walk on the bridge
Right over this mess
Don’t need to tell me a thing, baby
We’ve already confessed
And I raised my voice to the air
And we were blessed
Everybody needs a little forgiveness
Everybody needs a little forgiveness

We are calling for him tonight on this
Thin phone line
As usual we’re having ourselves one
hell of a time
And the planes keep flying right over our heads
No matter how lond we shout
“Hey, hey, hey !”
And we keep waving and waving
Our arms in the air
But we’re all tired out

I heard somebody say
Today’s the day
A big old hurricaine
Is blowing our way
Knocking over the buildings
Killing all the light
Open your eyes, boy, we made it through the night
Open your eyes, boy, we made it through the night
Let’s take a walk on the bridge
Right over this mess
Don’t need to tell me a thing, baby
We’ve already confessed
And I raised my voice to the air
And we were blessed
Everybody needs a little forgiveness
Everybody needs a little forgiveness