Fri Jan 8 '10 3:10 pm
Patty Griffin ventures into gospel with new album
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PattyGriffin
DOWNTOWN CHURCH
This is about songs and soaring voices, about faith and fate. About family, yes, and loss, and jubilation. But mostly Downtown Church, the seventh album from Patty Griffin, is an opportunity to engage her special voice with the myriad traditions of gospel music.
Yes, gospel music. You can’t get to rock ‘n’ roll or any other form of American popular music worth listening to without taking a long, deep drink from the pure waters of gospel’s golden age (roughly the decades bracketing World War II). Without savoring the drive and the anguish and the joy, the sheer undiluted joy, the certainty and the power sung out by dozens of highly competitive vocal groups. Without listening.
“I still feel like black gospel music, what’s come out of the United States from slavery, is really the foundation for almost everything that I love,” Patty says. “I’m...
