Before we get into the next review I would like to honour Kris Kristofferson who died earlier this week at the age of 88. Kristofferson was one of country music’s great singer-songwriters and he will be sorely missed.
A lot of retrospectives focus on Kristofferson’s songs being sung by others, but that was not my experience. I knew him because my mom (and later my stepdad) listened to Kristofferson records, and I was immersed in his gravelly truth telling pretty much from the day I was born.
The idea that these songs are “better” when sung by others never sits right with me. Kristofferson isn’t a gifted singer if you measure success by octaves, but if you want three chords and the truth then he’s your man.
He also killed a lot of vampires, which isn’t something Johnny Cash or Janis Joplin could ever lay claim to.
I’ll miss you, Mr. Kristofferson. Thank you for the lifelong gift of music.
If you’d like to read any of my Kris Kristofferson music reviews (there are eight) click here.
Disc 1771 is…1,000 Kisses
Artist: Patty Griffin
Year of Release:
What’s up with the Cover? Flowers and swallows and a slow winding river flowing past a church steeple put the viewer in a quiet and contemplative headspace, which is the right headspace to be in for a Patty Griffin record.
How I Came To Know It: I discovered Patty Griffin back in 2007 through her “Children Running Through” album”. Shortly thereafter I dug into her back catalogue, which is where I found this record.
How It Stacks Up: I have eight Patty Griffin records. “1000 Kisses” comes in at #2, bumping “Living With Ghosts” down to the bronze in the process.
Ratings: 4 stars
Patty Griffin is a lot like Kris Kristofferson – a brilliant songwriter who from time to time gets them covered by someone more famous. Unlike Kristofferson, you won’t find anyone suggesting those people sing the songs better than Griffin. No one credible, anyway.
Griffin sings with effortless power, and a tone that rings big and bold like a bell. It’s a voice that big could easily trend to shouty, but you will not experience that with Griffin. She knows how to reign it in just the right amount to fill your heart with the feels, but not lose the thread of story.
Which is a good decision, because “1000 Kisses” is replete with great stories, most of them complex character studies, often told in the first person. Griffin has a special talent for exploring complex characters in the first person, and many of the songs are artful soliloquys as we get to explore the triumphs and tragedies of the human spirit from the innermost thoughts of those experiencing them.
One of the best of these is “Long Ride Home,” about a woman in a limousine heading home from a funeral, her head full of the mixed emotion of remembrance and “what comes next” when someone important in your life is suddenly and irrevocably no longer there. It’s heart-wrenching and cathartic and all the things you feel in these moments, but made imminent through the specificity Griffin applies through the character study.
Just as thought provoking, “Making Pies” explores the loneliness of an old woman who is in the midst of a life adjusting to that kind of loss, with her husband of many years now gone. The song recounts how she fills her days, and a stoic practicality she expresses in the final stanza:
“5am, here I am
Walking the block to Table Talk
You could cry or die or just make pies all day
I'm making pies”
Griffin also takes time out from her own songwriting to deliver a killer version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Stolen Car”. Did I like it better than the Boss’ original? Reader, I did.
Voice and story come together on “Nobody’s Crying” one of the most Goddamn heartbreaking songs of lost love you will ever hear, where Griffin transmutes grief into emotional triumph. Griffin accomplishes this through both the expansive climb of the song’s structure and arrangement and through her incredible vocal talent. By the end, when she’s unleashed all her power, the walls are shaking with emotion, but with total control throughout.
I just lay back and revel in the majesty of it all, imagining that somewhere far off, Kris Kristofferson is doing the same.
Best tracks: Rain, Chief, Making Pies, Stolen Car, Be Careful, Long Ride Home, Nobody’s Crying
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