Patty Griffin - Flaming Red

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Music reviews of Flaming Red

Music Review: An Eclectic Little Gem
Rating: 5 Stars

Don't even think about buying this if you like a CD where all the songs are in the same musical style. This one gets around with a surprise behind every door - most of them very, very pleasant. Patty has a dynamic, expressive voice with a wide range. She uses it to great effect, sometimes sounding like a little girl (think a more childlike Rickie Lee Jones) and other times rocking with the best of them. I saw where some reviewers thought that the production overwhelmed that voice at times. On the first song, maybe. On the rest, impossible!

Styles range all over the place and all of them work. She uses the little girl voice well in "One Big Love", a jewel of a song inviting her boyfriend on a beach romp. It's got a real island sound until you hit the chorus and then it just flat rocks. She shows a lot of insight into the cruelties teenagers inflict on each other in "Tony", a tale about a homosexual kid she ignored in high school who later takes his own life. It's back to rocking on "Change", which describes what a particular woman goes through trying to please an impossible to please man. About the time you think you have her figured out she pulls out "Goodbye". This is an uptempo ballad (a little Nancy Griffith like) that describes missing a departed loved one. It is sung extremely well and she adds an incredible vocal flourish at the end. More ballads to come, right? Not so fast. "Blue Sky" finds her in a strong rock mode again, at times evoking U2 in their most soaring moments. There are even a couple of songs that seem to be inspired by Jimi Hendrix, of all things. Then she throws another curveball with "Go Now". This song would sound right at home in a late hours jazz club but the change in style is handled just fine. The most haunting song on the CD is "Mary", an ode to the mother of Jesus that is a folk song at heart. On this one she uses the lower range of her voice and delivers a vocal that will stick in your mind forever.

Through all of these stylistic changes she adds fine song writing from a variety of vantage points and through all of them she seems to come out the other side confident that she knows herself. I never got the feeling that she was just trying on styles to see if they fit - they all seem to fit. Few musicians can get away with that but she succeeds in grand fashion.

I see where other reviewers who had heard her first CD (apparently more laid back and acoustic) were shocked to hear "Flaming Red". I had not heard her first CD so had nothing to compare it to. Rest assured it is on my "to buy" list. I would love to see if there is any foundation in it for what followed and look forward to hearing that voice in another setting. I saw another review that called this a "rockabilly rave up". Other than the title song I don't have a clue why.

If I could only listen to 10 CDs for the rest of my life, this one and Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels" would be on that list. Do yourself a favor and check this out. I like just about everything here. If you don't care for one song, just wait. Something is coming along that will stick in your head for a long time.

Here's to you Patty. You stick it out there and go for it. You swing for the fences on this one and 99% of the time you knock it out of the park.

Description of Flaming Red

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop
• Rock