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I can't stop listening to Patty Griffin's 1000 Kisses (ATO). It contains only nine songs and she wrote only six of them. It lasts not quite 40 minutes, the length of a pre-CD LP. All of which measures nothing.
Last week, while writing a feature about Griffin for the Austin Chronicle, I listened to little else. This morning, I woke up with her version of Lonnie Johnson's "Tomorrow Night" in my head and surrendered to playing it some more.
"Tomorrow Night" served Johnson, one of the 20th century's greatest musicians, as a signature tune. Both Elvis and Charlie Rich sang it magnificently. Griffin learned it from Bob Dylan, who sings it, passionately, on "Good As I Been to You." The song really comes down to two words - "tomorrow" and "night" - and nobody's ever done more with them than Griffin She doesn't show off. Those words just roll so richly out of her mouth time after time, as a plea, a question, a hope that rises with the middle syllable of "tomorrow" and evaporates into a sigh-of pleasure, of disappointment, of fear, of joy - while she lingers over "night."
For singers, setting is everything, and her voice comes into total focus here because she's not singing with a rock band, as she did on "Flaming Red," or just with guitar accompaniment, as she did on "Living with Ghosts." She's working now with a small ensemble geared to her uniqueness. All I can hear on Tomorrow Night are a bass, a guitar and, at the end, a muted trumpet. It's more than enough.
The lushest, most intoxicating music on the album comes on "Mil Besos," a Mexican ballad that would be corny and overwrought coming from any other contemporary Anglo singer I know. Griffin turns it into a showcase, just her voice and two strings, a classical guitar and an accordion. A wood block keeps time.
"I lost my heart on the thousand kisses that I left on your lips," say the lyrics (although they say it in Spanish). Twice I've seen Griffin do this song before an audience, and each time the magic stillness of the reception and the explosive response when she finally let go of the tune made it feel as if that last word should be "ears."
Griffin's writing remains strong - strong enough so that her own songs aren't overwhelmed by this legendary material. But these particular songs owe a lot of their life to her voice. On "Chief," which has a great Gaelic atmosphere, and a marvelous story about a brain-damaged Penobscot Indian war veteran in Maine, the whole thing's upended by the way that Griffin lets go on "laugh" and "fly." Griffin's portrait of a plain, working-class woman in "Making Pies," and the wise clarity of "Be Careful" present a rare vision of aging and particularly of women who age. But on "Pies," the devastating moment comes with the final singing of "pies" and "Be Careful" hits home so hard because of the irreducible sadness of the vocal. After a hundred playings, I know this for sure.
I told one lie here, though. I can stop listening to 1000 Kisses any time. All it'll take is one good reason.
Deskscan (What's playing at my desk):
1. 1000 Kisses, Patty Griffin (ATO)
2. Become You, Indigo Girls (Epic)
3. Here I Stand: 20 Greatest Hits, Wade Flemons (Collectables) (The title track's just another "Louie Louie" knockoff - except it's from 1958, five years earlier than the Kingsmen! I guarantee you nobody in Kalamazoo knew who Richard Berry was.)
4. By the Hand of the Father, Alejandro Escovedo (Texas Music Group advance)
5. The Righteous Ones, Toshi Reagon (Razor & Tie)
6. Fishing Clothes: The Jewel Recordings 1965-69, Lightnin' Hopkins (Westside UK)
7. Sidetracks, Steve Earle (E Squared)
8. Fast, Custom (Artist Direct)
9. Another Happy Ending, The Clarks (Razor & Tie advance)
10. This World Just Won't Leave You Alone, Star Room Boys (Slewfoot)
(c) Copyright 2002 Dave Marsh Syndicated by Paradigm News, Inc.
Dave Marsh
Fozzie
