Crown of Roses by Patty Griffin
'Crown of Roses' by Patty Griffin
Experience—the name we give our mistakes, per Oscar Wilde, but also our attempt to draw wisdom from the agony of aging—was perhaps bound to make Patty Griffin an even more interesting and honest singer-songwriter. Her 11th studio album, Crown of Roses, brims with what she’s tried to learn.
Griffin’s voice, after 30 years of steady recording and touring, sounds as lived-in as a house that has sheltered generations of a family. As much as Emmylou Harris or Lucinda Williams, she steeps her vocal melodies in the kind of imperfections that make a song feel much more touched by emotion.
Crown of Roses features eight songs, which might seem unduly parsimonious, but the heft and craft of each track, plus the sensitive production work of longtime Griffin associate Craig Ross, endow the overall collection with the richness of loamy soil and the simplicity of a mountain-fed creek.
That simplicity helps Griffin delve far down and far into human essentials. In “All the Way Home,” flamenco guitar, and a violin keening as if from a lonely neighbor’s porch, accompany her ghostly wandering from where she was laid to rest. In “The End,” more elaborate and upfront strings pirouette her through an end that is also a beginning. And in “Long Time,” her ex, Robert Plant, contributes a shadowy backing vocal to barren blues of despair.
Besides Plant and Ross, band members like guitarist David Pulkingham and drummer Michael Longoria move steadily with Griffin through the storefront-church gospel of “I Know a Way,” the locomotive-driven folk-rock of “Back at the Start,” and the delicate closer “A Word,” worthy of Linda Thompson.
Heard in pieces or as a whole, Crown of Roses radiates pensiveness. Patty Griffin has given melody and rhythm to her experience, lightening as well as enlightening common burdens.
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