It’s Patty Griffin Week all week at Echoes and Stars. If you don’t like Patty’s music you might want to come back next week… actually we can’t be friends so don’t come back at all.
Just kidding.
She will be in concert here in the Magic City this Friday at the Alys Stephens Center. But some of you may not know her music. Well, here are 10 songs to get you started. In no particular order…
1. Truth #2. From the unreleased album Silver Bell, it’s perhaps my favorite and one I can listen to over and over and over.
2. Blue Sky. A perfect song for driving fast under cobalt-blue skies with the sunroof open and the windows down. Favorite line? “Be my singing lesson/Be my song.”
3. Stolen Car. A Springsteen cover that may haunt you for days.
4. Every Little Bit. Third song, first album. Patty wails on this one and it’s a heartbreaking tune. The line “It’s funny how a morning turns a love to shame” blew me away the first time I heard it. And when she sings at the top of your lungs, “I am sold by a lie” you will feel down to your soul.
5. When It Don’t Come Easy. One of those slow burners meant to be listened to under the night sky.
6. Be Careful. I could write a whole on this one. With all the female singers now singing tough songs full of revenge, as a father I want more of this. “Be careful how you bend me/Be careful where you send me/ Careful how you end me/Be careful with me.”
7. No Bad News. The similarities between this one and Truth #2 are obvious. And that’s why I love it.
8. Little Fire. One of the few songs she actually wrote on an album full of covers of gospel tinged blues and country. A gorgeous little song.
9. Long Ride Home. A song about just burying the person you shared a bed with for 40 years. I got chills right now just thinking about it.
10. Moses. First song, first album. “Diamonds, Roses/I need Moses/To cross this sea of loneliness/Part this red river of pain.”
Echoes and Stars 