- Audio CD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Label: Import
- ASIN: B000MTOMBW
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 12,183 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
On her fifth studio CD, folk-rocker Patty Griffin employs three timeless themes--childhood, flight, and death--to craft her most musically diverse and accessible album yet. But while moving through jazz, beatnik, classic and modern folk, gospel R&B, Americana, and moody piano ballad, Griffin keeps her backing quiet and spare, all the more to showcase the power of her deft storytelling and the bell clarity of her unadorned soprano. On song after song, the characters who waft through her experience are on the move, chasing one thing and fleeing another--on trains, ships, buses, in cars, even on the aerialist's bar--ultimately trading an ending of one kind for a new beginning and transference. Sometimes--as on the Rickie Lee Jones-ish "Stay on the Ride," where an old man with no name answers an existential urge for going--they don't even know what it is. "Trapeze," the most resonant offering, follows an aging circus performer who'd rather work without a net than take her chances in love. Here, Emmylou Harris adds one of her most aching harmony lines to Griffin's exquisite, ethereal lead, while in the next track, "Getting Ready," the singer turns a 180, laying a sneering Dylanesque vocal over a fiercely scrubbed acoustic guitar and an occasional dissonant kiss-off. "Baby, baby, you were my drug/And I was just your cigarette," she drones knowingly. One suspects that particular object of her affections will soon regret it. --Alanna Nash
Review
To pigeonhole Patty Griffin's fifth released studio album as a folk or country album would be doing the range of musical styles on it an injustice. Bouncing from blues, gospel, country rockabilly, acoustic, gospel and, yes, folk, Griffin's voice stands out through it all.
The twice Grammy nominated artist's fans include Emmylou Harris (who duets here on the haunting ''Trapeze''), Bette Midler, the Dixie Chicks, Linda Ronstadt, and Solomon Burke, and on the strength of this album you can see why.
Recorded in a makeshift studio in a rented house in Austin, Texas, this album puts Griffin firmly in the driving seat. Her bluesy alto voice manages to capture that difficult balance of quiet but powerful, and accompaniment ranges from a horn section on the energetic and raucous ''Stay On The Road'', to soaring piano on the beautiful ''Burgundy Shoes''.
Recorded with a 9 person string section, conducted and arranged by John Mark Painter, there is a feel of cinematic grandness to some of the tracks here, used best on ''Up To The Mountain (MLK Song)'', a tribute to Martin Luther King.
''Don't Ever Give Up'' is a slow-building anthem for perseverance, with the string section coming into full force to help her ever-strong vocal reach its lush-sounding climax, before fading away into an acoustic finish. In contrast ''I'm Getting Ready'', is a fast-paced country rock track about a woman preparing to dump her less than perfect partner.
While Griffin's always been a recording artist of quality, this album could be the one which finally lifts her out of her primary role as songwriter of choice to the stars mentioned above and will see her finally recognised as a performer in her own right. Fingers crossed... --Helen Groom
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I first got into Patty Griffin by reading something that Emmylou Harris had said - words to the effect that she was one of Emmylou's favourite singers. I thought that if that was the case then Patty Griffin would be something very special. I wasn't wrong.
This is Patty's most ambitious album to date, no question. The album flows through so many styles - Jazz, Blues, Country, Ballad, Alternative (and that's just for openers). Some of the songs hit straight away (Stand on the Ride, Burgundy Shoes, Someone Else's Tomorrow) others are real growers (Trapeze, Railroad Wings). And, right at the heart of it is this voice - this unimaginably amazing voice - leading the band through the songs.
Her best album so far...
This is Patty's most ambitious album to date, no question. The album flows through so many styles - Jazz, Blues, Country, Ballad, Alternative (and that's just for openers). Some of the songs hit straight away (Stand on the Ride, Burgundy Shoes, Someone Else's Tomorrow) others are real growers (Trapeze, Railroad Wings). And, right at the heart of it is this voice - this unimaginably amazing voice - leading the band through the songs.
Her best album so far...
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Released last week in the US and here in the UK at the end of the month, quite simply, this could be the best album of 2007 already. Personally, I found Children Running Through to be her greatest work to date and if there is any justice she should win a grammy for its outstanding writing content. Well produced also, without every drowning out the purity of voice which ouses class on the piano driven ballad, Burgundy Shoes. Just play it from start to finish and you'll find no weaknesses, although on saying that, I would have loved a gospel choir to end the song, Up To The Mountain, but honestly every single track deserves some praise. Gospel, Country, Rock, Soul and Blues all in evidence here and whilst I loved every single track, its gets better and better as it progresses and with the hauntingly beautiful ballad of Someone Else's Tomorrow with chords to die for, at track eleven, clinching my reason for writing this rare review. There are many comparisons to other artists I could have mentioned here, but that would be unfair to Patty Griffin as she deserves every credit to her goodself.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Not usually my kind of music, heard this cd on a plane. Couldn't get the songs out of my head, so I bought the cd. Addictive, specially "Burgundy shoes" - what a song! What a voice! Read somewhere she's better live - she must be unbelievable. Someone wrote that after listening to this CD you don't want to hear anything else for a while, I agree...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Superfluous strings running through it
I've had this, my 3rd Patty Griffin album, for a couple of months now and have held off reviewing as am reluctant to give her anything less than 5 stars-see previous reviews. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Gizmophobic
Good record again
This is another good record by Patty Griffin. The album starts fine with five good songs, in a row including a fantastic Emmylou Harris collaboration on Trapeze, one of those... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2007 by Paco
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