Patty Griffin is a gifted artist who has no fear of expressing her heart and soul and doesn't hide behind empty artifice in her music. It's a bit surprising that she had never made an LP called
Patty Griffin before releasing her self-titled tenth studio album in 2019, just because
Patty Griffin is such a simple, straightforward, and honest description of the music inside. That description holds true for most of Griffin's best music, yet it seems particularly apt for this album; on
Patty Griffin, the songs and the performances sound remarkably open and unguarded, with the spare, primarily acoustic arrangements adding focus and emphasis to the intimacy of her voice, an instrument of sure and measured fervor.
Patty Griffin was written and recorded during a difficult period in her life, while she was being treated for cancer and briefly lost her voice, and themes of mortality and loss are certainly present in this music. However, while clouds of doubt and fear can be found on
Patty Griffin, this is a set of songs about life, even amidst the bluesy darkness of "Bluebeard," the vagaries of fate and justice in "The Wheel," or the sad resignation of "Had a Good Reason." "Hourglass" is a telling metaphor for the cycles of one person's life, "Luminous Places" speaks eloquently about the healing powers of love and acceptance, and "River" is a tribute to strength and resilience as reflected in the experiences of one woman. Griffin co-produced these sessions with
Craig Ross (much of the material was cut in her own home studio), and the audio and arrangements are both a superb match for the material, catching the poignant textures of her voice and the depth of her narratives.
Patty Griffin is a remarkable portrait of the artist and the experiences that informed these songs, and even by the high standards of her body of work, it's something special and is a potent reminder of her status as one of America's signature singer/songwriters.
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