Children Running Through - Dark Publications

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Similar Items:

•	West
•	Not Too Late
•	Living With Ghosts
•	The Calling
•	1000 Kisses

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
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

More from Patty Griffin

1000 Kisses	Living With Ghosts	Impossible Dream
Flaming Red	A Kiss in Time

Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

When the History of Her Career Is Written... February 8, 2007
56 out of 65 found this review helpful

Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks", Young's "After the Goldrush", Browne's "Late for the Sky", U2's "Joshua Tree", McLachlan's "Surfacing"...and while some reading this might legitimately plug in different titles for these artists, my point is that every great artist has one (or perhaps two) works that immortalize their careers. Thankfully, Patty Griffin has a long way to go, but it's hard to imagine anything she'll do from here on overachieving this magnificent release. The purity and passion of her singing, the power and profundity of her lyrics, which can almost literally turn one's heart inside-out, the confidence, versatility and genius she demonstrates in moving from gospel to gorgeous strings to hard edged folk to Hispanic-tinged brass arrangements left me, an already dedicated fan, feeling that Patty Griffin has, with "Children Running Through," guaranteed herself a permanent place in the pantheon of the very greatest singer-songwriters of all time. Again, Griffin is still in the middle of what has already been an amazing career, so if this sounds like an obituary, I don't mean it to. It's just hard to imagine anything she (or anyone else, for that matter) will do from here on being better than this. That said, I guess it won't really surprise me if she finds yet another, higher mountain to climb. Bottom line: If you consider yourself an audiophile or a collector of the best music ever recorded, your collection won't be complete until "Children Running Through" is added to it. This is a great and timeless record.

5 out of 5 stars

An Artist at Her Peak April 25, 2007
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

Patty Griffin is an incredible writer, singer and performer. I have been a fan of hers for about 6 years. My love of her music has been fairly consistent, although I have doubted for awhile whether she'd ever release a true classic record. I absolutely adored 1,000 Kisses, but maybe because it's got more of a consistently melancholy mood, it's always seemed to be more of a niche record for Patty. With Children Running Through, Patty's hit paydirt.

Much like Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is the standard for Lucinda Williams, this record will always be the one that other Patty records are judged against. Sure, certain fans will always prefer Living With Ghosts. Some may prefer 1,000 Kisses or Flaming Red, but to the vast majority of music fans, Children Running Through will be the one great Patty record.

Maybe it's the production. It all just sounds so great. Each song seems to have been a success in achieving what it set out to achieve. Patty's a jazzy crooner on the opener "You'll Remember", a funky rapper on "Stay on the Ride", a folk storyteller on "Trapeze", a bona fide rocker on "Getting Ready", a piano balladeer on "Burgundy Shoes" and a Sam Cooke styled soul singer on "Heavenly Day" and that's just the first half of the record.

She's dabbled in most of these styles at times throughout her career, but in each case never more successfully than here. While many loved her rocking out on the title track to "Flaming Red", she's clearly brought her rock to new heights with "Getting Ready". Her Emmylou duet on "Trapeze" is as gorgeous a song as she's ever done, and as piano ballads go, none rank with "Burgundy Shoes".

Tracks 7-12 are a little less diverse than the lead 6 tracks, although "No Bad News" sounds like a perfect choice for the next Dixie Chicks single to me; a toe tapping countryish rocker with an infectious acoustic guitar riff driving it home. Apparently, this song is inspired by none other than our president, which only makes the song more enjoyable for me.

I can continue discussing the record track by track, but really there's no point. Patty's incomparable as a songwriter - she writes great melodies, thoughtful lyrics and does a wonderful job putting these songs together. Then this record, really for the first time, reveals her incredible singing - in all the varying styles I mentioned - and it is just a beatifully produced record. The strings, the percussion, the piano, all fit the songs just about as perfect as possible.

The only way Patty can sound better than on Children Running Through is in a live setting. If you get a chance to see her reveal that voice live, don't miss it. It's a real event.

5 out of 5 stars

Chill-invoking! February 16, 2007
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

On first listen I found this set of songs to be very soothing and highly enjoyable, but not moving or remarkable. Afterall, nothing can measure up to the jolt you feel the first time you hear Patty Griffin, and some of her earlier works are just so gut-wrenchingly raw and startlingly honest and sad. Oh, but then....then, I listened to it again, and again, and again. And with each turn, this album has swiftly and steadily pushed itself deeper into my soul and psyche until today, as I was listening, I found myself with chills, with tears, alternately crying and smiling. And I found myself in complete awe of how utterly moving and remarkable this piece of work is. I think that the very thing that put me and maybe others off at first is what, now, I find most relatable. And that is that Patty is aging and maturing, mellowing and coming to terms with life and its offerings. And her music is, of course, reflecting this. Some highlights for me include:
1)The warm and nostalgic feeling of "Bergundy Shoes" and the one word chorus "Sun". How she can make a single word mean so many things and evoke such emotion is amazing to me. 2)The beat and rhythm of both "No Bad News" and "Getting Ready" are infectious and I am incapable of not moving when I hear it 3) The "sun on my skin and smell of fresh-cut grass and warm earth" feeling I get when I hear "Heavenly Day". Knowing it is about her dogs makes it that much more endearing to me, but it is a great, feel-good song regardless of her muse. There is such a variety of style from song to song that I am sure nearly anyone can find a song to love. I, for one, love them all.

5 out of 5 stars

Another Excellent Disc. February 6, 2007
15 out of 26 found this review helpful

Patty Griffin has been covered by everyone from The Dixie Chicks, to Solomon Burke to The Wreckers to (Lawd) Jessica Simpson, but one thing remains clear ... Griffin is a true artist with words -- and her voice isn't shabby either. What other artists do with her material pales in contrast to Griffin's clear as a bell tone and style. She runs the gamut on this disc from folk to simmering gospel.

"Stay on the Ride" and "You'll Remember" show Griffin at her best, all low key, just letting the music and atmosphere do all the work. But unlike her last disc this one seems to be about taking things a step further and contemplating life and all its problems, but her voice still has the quiet sharpness to it that makes you listen and hang on to her every word. But she does have her weak spots too. Like a lot of other artists out there now, Griffin's voice is not a huge instrument, "Up On the Mountain" is out of her comfort zone and when she goes for the money notes she can't hit them with enough power as she wants. "Up On the Mountain" is a Gospel burner but it lacks the fire that it needs. This reminds me of her male equal -- Raul Malo another gifted songwriter and singer who totally falls flat on his face when singing Gospel. Their voices just lack that punch and grit to pull it off even though they both are adept and leaps and bounds above what most of their peers are doing.

Griffin's latest belongs next to all of her other CDs, and is a great mix of styles. You can't keep a great artist down, even though two of her discs were shelved for not being "with it" enough, she knows that its the music that will sustain the times and not the other way around.

5 out of 5 stars

Profoundly Beautiful... February 8, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Patty Griffin has created an absolute masterpiece with here new album "Children Running Through". The opening song puts us right back in the seat that Patty left vacant on the last song from "Impossible Dream". She leads us into a wonderfully blues/rockabilly track appropriately named "Stay On The Ride". After which we do just that. We stay on the ride for Patty Griffin's masterwork. I am a huge fan of all of her previous albums. "Children Running Through" brings all the best of Patty's talent out in the open. Her wonderful songwriting and spot on vibrato is in the forefront as usual. However, its seems as if she has came to accept the fact that she should be comfortable with her voice, which in previous albums it seemed as if she was a bit shy to let go. She lets go on this album. She is paving her own way in music. I have all the love and respect for Patty and her amazing talent. I only hope she continues for many years to come. She helps brighten my life everytime I listen to her.

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