Children Running Through : Patty Griffin : Review : Rolling Stone

Patty Griffin is better known as a songwriter than as a singer of her own songs, thanks to a long run of country and pop covers by bigger artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Dixie Chicks and, bizarrely, Jessica Simpson. But it is Griffin's voice -- its clear, natural force and her disciplined way with vibrato -- that hits you first on Children Running Through, in the spare, sultry bravado of the opening song, "You'll Remember." It is, like many of the songs here, a good riddance to trouble and those who start it, and the virtually empty arrangement -- walking bass and brushed drums -- gives Griffin plenty of room to show off the brassy determination underlining the country-comfort delicacy of her singing. Some of the sass here is on the outside. Encouraged by snorting saxes and ash-can drumming, Griffin shows how much blues singer she has in her, minus the affectations, in "Stay on the Ride." And she's no barn-dance wallflower in "Getting Ready," which comes with jolts of guitar distortion and even feedback. The affirmation in "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)," a hymn of thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., needs a stronger, truly-gospel voice. But the Sandy Denny-like way Griffin holds notes and words for fighting emphasis in "I Don't Ever Give Up" is beautiful moxie.