Patty Griffin is 59 years old today.
Griffin is singer-songwriter who plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre. Her songs have been covered by numerous musicians, including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Rory Block, Dave Hause and the Dixie Chicks.
In 2007, Griffin received the Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association.
Born in Old Town, Maine, she is the youngest child in her family, with six older siblings. She bought a guitar for $50 at age 16 and sang and played but had no inclination to become a professional musician.
After a short marriage, which ended in 1992, Griffin began playing in Boston coffee houses and was scouted by A&M Records, which signed her on the strength of her demo tape. When the finished studio recordings were submitted to A&M, the company executives thought it was overproduced, so producer Nile Rodgers and A&M instead released a stripped-down reworking of her demo tape as the album, Living with Ghosts.
Griffin's second album, Flaming Red, released in 1988, was a departure from the acoustic sound of Living with Ghosts, with a mix of mellow songs and high-tempo rock and roll songs. The title track, "Flaming Red,” is an example of the latter, beginning with an even beat until it increases to a fevered pitch of emotion.
Her third album, Silver Bell, has a sound similar to its predecessor. It was released by A&M in 2013, 13 years after it was recorded (and well after bootlegged copies had been circulated).
In 2004, Griffin toured with Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings as the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue.
Griffin's songs have been recorded by numerous artists, including the Irish-born singer Maura O'Connell ("Long Ride Home"), Linda Ronstadt ("Falling Down"), the Dixie Chicks ("Truth #2," "Top of the World," "Let Him Fly", "Mary"), Bette Midler, Melissa Ferrick and Missy Higgins ("Moses"), Beth Nielsen Chapman, Christine Collister, and Mary Chapin Carpenter ("Dear Old Friend"), Jessica Simpson ("Let Him Fly"), Martina McBride ("Goodbye"), Emmylou Harris ("One Big Love", "Moon Song"), Bethany Joy Galeotti ("Blue Sky"), the Wreckers ("One More Girl"), Keri Noble ("When It Don't Come Easy"), Joan Osborne ("What You Are"), Solomon Burke ("Up to the Mountain") and Miranda Lambert ("Getting Ready").
In July, 2010, Robert Plant toured the United States with Band of Joy (reprising the name of his band in the 1960s), with Griffin as a backing vocalist and singer-guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Darrell Scott, bassist-vocalist Byron House and drummer-percussionist-vocalist Marco Giovino. She is also featured on Plant's solo album, Band of Joy, released in September, 2010 by Rounder Records.
In 2014, Griffin parted with Plant after a long relationship. They had lived together and divided their time between Austin and England.