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Patty Griffin

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AboutPatricia Jean Griffin, a.k.a. Patty Griffin, hails from Old Town, Maine, home of the Penobscot nation. A guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, Griffin was born the youngest of seven siblings. Griffin got her start playing in Boston coffee houses circa 1992, after a divorce. There she was signed by A&M Records, who released her first album, Living with Ghosts (1996), a stripped-down version of her demo tape. Griffin's sophomore album, Flaming Red (1998), departed from the spare, acoustic sound of Living with Ghosts, offering an early hint of the breadth and scope of her songwriting.

Unexpectedly, A&M dropped Griffin's contract after she cut her third record, Silver Bell. Although the album was never officially released, its contents were leaked to the Internet and bootleg copies abound. Griffin's contract was subsequently picked up by Dave Matthews' ATO Records, with whom she released 1000 Kisses (2001), A Kiss in Time (2003), Impossible Dream (2004), and Children Running Through (2007). She is known for her Blues and Gospel-inflected vocals, down-home songwriting, and incisive lyricism, as well as her professional connections to musicians such as Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, Ellis Paul, Buddy Miller, David Rawlings, Mavis Staples, Shawn Colvin and the Dixie Chicks.

Such collaborations and the increasing number and variety of artists covering Griffin's songs have increasingly exposed her to audiences outside her early folk music fan-base. Griffin was named the 2007 Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association for Children Running Through and won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album in 2011 for [i]Downtown Church (Credential Recordings). Children Running Through debuted at #34 on the Billboard 200. Griffin described the album in an interview with Gibson Lifestyle, saying
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.


The idea for Griffin to record Downtown Church grew from a version of "Waiting For My Child" she recorded with Mavis Staples for the Gospel compilation Oh Happy Day. On her Web-site, Griffin says
I still feel like Black gospel music, what's come out of the United States from slavery, is really the foundation for almost everything that I love. I'm talkin' Beatles and everything. That, to me, is just basic. The foundation.
She goes on to note that she is
a Staples Singers fan. I had them in almost constant rotation for going on ten years, and I have some Dixie Hummingbirds stuff. I'm pretty basic when it comes to gospel music. I grew up Catholic, so I guess that gives me some license in that world.


Griffin's work has also appeared in film, television, and theater. Her songs have appeared on shows such as Grey's Anatomy, American Idol, Without a Trace, and the films Elizabethtown and Niagara, Niagara. Griffin's first DVD, "Patty Griffin: Live From The Artists Den" was filmed on February 6, 2007; selections were later featured on the program Live from the Artists Den on Ovation TV. Griffin taped an acoustic round set for the PBS Songwriters series. The Atlantic Theater Company produced 10 Million Miles, an Off Broadway musical with Griffin's music as the soundtrack, in 2007.

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