BOOGIE QUEEN WANNABE

In 2002 I interviewed Patty Griffin, one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Since then she has released the live album A Kiss in Time and the studio album Impossible Dream, so the following article is a bit outdated:

Just when you think you’ve got singer-songwriter Patty Griffin figured out, she throws you a curve ball.
On her 1996 debut album, Living With Ghosts, she delivered ten haunting solo acoustic songs that showcased her gritty vocals and versatile guitar work.
Rather than continue in the folk music vein that served her so well, Griffin surprised fans and critics alike with her follow-up album, Flaming Red. She stuck with her trademark themes of love and loss, but traded in her stripped down acoustic sound for droning basses, electric guitars and pounding drums.
Griffin is currently on tour in support of her new album 1,000 Kisses. A return to her acoustic roots, the album contains seven original songs and three cover songs, including Bruce Springsteen’s “Stolen Car” and the Latin American standard “Mil Besos.”
She recently spoke about her music from her home in Austin, Texas.
1,000 Kisses has a spare sound, she says, largely out of financial necessity. “It’s stripped down because I made it on my own. I didn’t borrow money from a record company. Also, I wanted to focus on singing, not complex arrangements.”
Griffin occasionally cuts loose with a feel-good song, like the catchy “One Big Love” on Flaming Red. But much of her material touches on sobering themes that can leave the listener with a lump in his throat. The song “Tony,” for instance, is about a gay high school student who commits suicide, while the melancholy “Making Pies” puts us in the shoes of an old woman who reflects on the losses in her life.
She says, “Sometimes I wish I was a boogie queen. But at every time in every culture there are mournful singers. It seems to be what my voice is about. I don’t know why it turned out this way. I just have access to heavier stuff.”
Her outlook, she believes, partially comes from growing up in a small mill town in western Maine. “There were only three months of summer. The rest of the year is dark and cold. This is part of what I am now.”
Six years into her recording career, Griffin says that she’s gleaned some survival tips from her friends and mentors, Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. “I’ve learned a lot from both, the way they handle themselves. Ive spent more time with Emmy. She has great compassion, and I catch myself referring to what she would do.”
Williams, on the other hand, “is the bad-ass of all time. She does her thing and doesn’t let anyone stand in her way. This is hard for me to do.”