As if she hasn’t conquered enough in her career as a singer-songwriter, Austin’s Patty Griffin has a new surprise for all of us: a gospel album. Griffin’s seventh solo trek, Downtown Church, will hit stores and the Interwebs on January 26th, and you can bet it’s quite the departure from 2007’s Children Running Through. There … Read more
I adored Tift Merritt’s last studio effort, Another Country, so much that I recently called it one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the last decade. Her album clearly spoke to me with tunes like “Keep You Happy,” “Broken,” and “Hopes Too High,” and it reminded me so much of Neil Young’s Comes a Time, … Read more
When Buddy Miller took the stage last Friday at The Pageant in St. Louis and performed the solo acoustic “That’s How I Got To Memphis,” one could say that he could have kept going — just him and an acoustic guitar — and everything would be fine and dandy. But when Patty Griffin joined him … Read more
Photo credit: Rodney Bursiel You gotta love these supergroups, or at least the idea of them. Robert Plant has joined the fun and re-formed Band of Joy, which will feature Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Byron House and Marco Giovino. Better yet, they’re hitting the road this summer (see dates below), and an album … Read more
PHOTO BY DAVID McCLISTER Patty Griffin is an incredible treasure to me, mainly because of her albums Flaming Red (the song “Goodbye,” especially), 1000 Kisses, and Impossible Dream. And now she’s back with a new album, Servant of Love (9/25; pre-order here) and new new tour. Have a listen to “Rider of Days” below.
Patty Griffin is back with Servant of Love, an album that touches on many genres — jazz, folk, rock, blues — but what it does best is evoke feeling, one of hypnotic bliss. She accomplishes this mostly with her words and voice, as she always has, but there are other subtle touches that shoot through … Read more
Welcome to our favorite Speakers in Code list of the year. The 10 Best Sad Bastard Songs of 2015. It’s our highest honor. In years past (2012, 2013, 2014), we’ve chosen 20 songs, but this year we’re trimming the sad. And this year, I wrote about every song. You can listen to each individually below, … Read more
It’s April, so that means it’s time to look forward to a new batch of albums. We highly recommend these, and we hope you play them loud on your turntable, or in your car with the windows rolled down. And maybe when you’re done, you can blast “Free Bird” and fly away. Happy Spring! 4/2 … Read more
Photo by Cambria Harkey I might get to the end of my life Find out everyone was lying I don’t have a problem writing this: Patty Griffin is one of the best American songwriters living today. From Living With Ghosts to Flaming Red to this year’s American Kid and this week’s unveiling of Silver Bell, a … Read more
All photos by Jason Gonulsen On Monday evening, Patty Griffin returned to The Pageant in support of her two 2013 releases: American Kid and Silver Bell, the latter which was recorded 13 years ago. Griffin leaned heavily on American Kid throughout the show, but also found room for favorites such as “Carry Me,” “Mil Besos,” … Read more
Photo by Cambria Harkey And I remember where I was When the word came about you It was a day much like today The sky was bright, and wide, and blue Tonight, Patty Griffin returns to St. Louis to play The Pageant in support of her 2013 releases American Kid and Silver Bell. The latter … Read more
Photo by Cambria Harkey As if we needed any more evidence that Patty Griffin is one of the best living songwriters around, she gave us another dose of awesome with her new album, American Kid, which was released last week. It’s a mostly quiet affair, minus today’s Jam of the Day, which doesn’t whisper — … Read more
“You need to see her man, she’s freaking American-songwriter royalty.” – Everyone I Know, For My Entire Life When Patty Griffin announced her show at Haw River Ballroom, I made a mental note to make sure to catch her this time. As the quote above suggests, everyone I know loves the hell out of her, … Read more