Patty Griffin
Griffin performing at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Patricia Jean Griffin
Born	March 16, 1964 (1964-03-16) (age 45)
Origin	Old Town, Maine, United States
Genres	Folk, folk-rock, Americana, alt-country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, piano
Years active	1992-present
Labels	A&M (1996–2000) ATO Records (2001-Present)
Associated acts	Dixie Chicks, Emmylou Harris, Joshua Radin
Website	Official Website

Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964,¹ is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with her onstage as well as performing cover songs of Griffin's work, exposing many of her compositions to mainstream pop and country music audiences outside Griffin's folk music circle of fans. She is also a recipient of the Americana Music Association's highest honor as "Artist of the Year" in 2007, as well as taking home the award for best album for Children Running Through.

Biography

Patty Griffin is from Old Town, Maine, United States, next to the Penobscot Native American reservation. She is primarily a guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, with a distinctive voice. The youngest child in her family with six older siblings, she bought a guitar for $50.00 at age 16, and sang and played, but had no inclination at the time to become a professional musician. After a short marriage which ended in 1992, Griffin began playing in Boston coffee houses, and was scouted by A&M Records, who signed Griffin on the strength of her demo tape; however A&M thought it to be overproduced, so Nile Rodgers and A&M instead released a stripped-down reworking of her demo tape, as an album called Living with Ghosts.²

1998's Flaming Red was a departure from the acoustic sound of Living with Ghosts, with a mix of mellow songs with some rock and roll songs that border on new wave. The song "Tony" from this album is also featured on the charity benefit album Live in the X Lounge. The follow up Silver Bell had a similar sound, though it was also unreleased by A&M. Patty has rerecorded songs from that album for later releases (such as "Making Pies" for 1000 Kisses, and "Mother of God," "Standing," and "Top of the World" for Impossible Dream), and others have been covered by the Dixie Chicks. Copies of Silver Bell have leaked out, and can be acquired via the "B&P" (Blanks and Postage) method on message boards.³

A&M dropped Griffin's contract after Silver Bell, and she was picked up by Dave Matthews' ATO Records. Four albums have followed so far on ATO, including 2002's 1000 Kisses.

In 2004, Griffin toured with Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings as the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue. On February 6, 2007, she released Children Running Through. The album debuted at #34 on the Billboard 200 with 27,000 copies sold.⁴ Of the album, Griffin told Gibson Lifestyle, “I just kind of felt like singing what I wanted to sing, and playing how I wanted to play. It’s not all dark and tragic. It’s a different way for me to look at things. Getting old—older, I should say, I’m not so serious all the time.”⁵ It was also said that the album was inspired by her childhood days.⁶

Griffin's songs have been recorded by artists such as Irish-born singer Maura O’Connell ("Long Ride Home"), Linda Ronstadt ("Falling Down"), the Dixie Chicks ("Truth No. 2," "Top of the World," "Let Him Fly"), Bette Midler ("Moses"), Beth Nielsen Chapman and Dixie Chicks ("Mary"), Mary Chapin Carpenter ("Dear Old Friend"), Jessica Simpson ("Let Him Fly"), Martina McBride ("Goodbye"), Melissa Ferrick and Missy Higgins ("Moses"), Emmylou Harris ("One Big Love", "Moon Song"), Bethany Joy Galeotti ("Blue Sky"), The Wreckers ("One More Girl"), Joan Osborne ("What You Are"), Solomon Burke ("Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)"), and Miranda Lambert ("Getting Ready"). Kelly Clarkson performed "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)" with Jeff Beck on guitar, accompanied by some orchestration on the Idol Gives Back episode of American Idol, and the live recording was released as a single immediately afterwards, reaching #56 on the Billboard Hot 100 in its first week and giving Griffin her highest charting position as a songwriter. (The audience gave Clarkson a standing ovation following her performance.) Griffin herself had said that when she heard Burke's version of the song, she almost didn't feel worthy of singing it herself anymore. Griffin's version of the song was featured on the fourth season, episode 11 of the popular ABC television show, Grey's Anatomy.

Instruments

1965 Gibson J-50 Guitar
1993 Gibson J-200 Junior Guitar⁷

Recent work

In September 2008, Griffin was featured on the album Simple Times by indie artist Joshua Radin, duetting on the song "You Got Growing Up to Do." In October 2008, she appeared in background vocals on Todd Snider's cover of John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son" for Snider's Peace Queer album. In February 2009, Griffin was featured on the album Feel That Fire by Dierks Bentley, duetting on the song "Beautiful World".

In 2009, Patty Griffin, along with Mavis Staples and The Tri-City Singers released a version of the song "Waiting For My Child to Come Home" on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.⁸

The collaboration with Staples led EMI's Peter York to suggest Griffin make an album of gospel songs. Griffin agreed on the condition that friend and bandmate Buddy Miller produced the record.⁹ Griffin's sixth studio album, Downtown Church, was recorded at the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville and was released on January 26, 2010.¹⁰ The album features long-time friends Buddy and Julie Miller, as well as Shawn Colvin and Emmylou Harris. It features songs by Hank Williams, Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, and "All Creatures of Our God and King," a song accredited to St. Francis of Assisi.¹¹

Film, television, and theater

Griffin has appeared in several movies including Cremaster 2 and in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown the soundtrack of which also included her song "Long Ride Home" and a cover of "Moon River" by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini.

In 2007, the Atlantic Theater Company produced 10 Million Miles, an Off Broadway musical with Griffin's music as the soundtrack, and a book by Keith Bunin, directed by Michael Mayer.

Griffin's first DVD, "Patty Griffin: Live From The Artists Den" was filmed on February 6, 2007 at the Angel Orensanz Foundation For the Arts on New York’s Lower East Side and released later that year. Selections from the DVD were featured on the program Live from the Artists Den on Ovation TV beginning January 24, 2008.

Griffin's song, "Heavenly Day" was featured in the last scene of a "Smallville" episode, Promise, at the end of Lex's and Lana's Wedding Day.

In 2007, Griffin was singled out by the Americana Music Association and awarded their top honor: Artist of the Year, and her album Children Running Through also received an honor from the Association. She performed "Trapeze", one of her more haunting songs, with Emmylou Harris harmonizing.¹²

On June 13, 2008 Griffin performed an acoustic in the round set in Nashville, Tennessee with Kris Kristofferson and Randy Owen (Alabama) for a special taping of a PBS songwriters series to be aired in December 2008. Each performer played five songs. In Griffin's case, it features "Making Pies," "No Bad News," "Up to the Mountain," and "Mary."

The song, "Rain", from Griffin's 1,000 Kisses album was used in an episode, The Skull in the Desert, of the first season of Bones. "Burgundy Shoes" from Griffin's "Children Running Through" album was used in the episode, "Ashes of Dreams You Let Die", from the fourth series of One Tree Hill. The song "Forgiveness" was featured on an episode of NBC's Ed - "Exceptions" in its first season. Griffin's song "Kite Song" was featured in the second season of Joan of Arcadia. The song "When it Don't Come Easy" was featured in Episode 6 of the first season of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie. The main characters of the show Crossing Jordan are avid Patty Griffin fans, and her songs are featured often throughout the series. On 11/10/2009, her song "Mary" was featured on FX's Sons of Anarchy season 2 episode 10. On Monday, February 8, 2010 Griffin appeared on the "Late, Late Show" with Craig Ferguson and performed "Move Up" from her latest album.

Discography

Albums

Other contributions

• Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music (1998) - "Cain" (recorded live during the 1997 tour)
• Live at the World Café: Vol. 15 - Handcrafted (2002, World Café) - "Rain"
• 107.1 KGSR Radio Austin - Broadcasts Vol.10 (2002) - "Rain"
• Elizabethtown Soundtrack (2005, RCA Records) - "Long Ride Home", "Moon River"
• Oh Happy Day (2009, EMI Gospel/Vector Recordings) - "Waiting For My Child To Come Home" (with Mavis Staples and The Tri-City Singers)
• Live at the World Cafe: Vol. 5 (1997, World Cafe Records) - "Every Little Bit"
• Live at the World Cafe: Vol. 16 - Sweet Sixteen (World Cafe Records) - "Makin' Pies"

Guest singles

References

External links

• Official website
• Patty Griffin at Allmusic
• Patty Griffin at the Internet Off Broadway Database