Patty Griffin has been tilting at windmills for nearly a decade, trying to topple music-industry barricades with her gorgeously unconventional voice and unique, layered songs. When her songs worked, the results were extraordinary. When they missed, which wasn’t often, Griffin’s struggles became a little too obvious.
Griffin will perform Monday in Seattle.
On her just-released latest album, “Impossible Dream” (ATO), however, Griffin pulls it all together – stacking one daring, powerful song on top of another to build her first full-fledged masterpiece. And, to her credit, she accomplishes this by taking chances, not by simply sticking with her already successful alt-country sound, the sound that led the Dixie Chicks to cover two of Griffin’s songs on their hit album “Home.”
Fear not, fans. She doesn’t ditch it entirely. She includes her own version of the moving “Top of the World,” which the Chicks turned into a hit even after their country radio blacklisting. “Useless Desires” is an alt-country gem, as poetic and potent as Lucinda Williams on a rant, especially as Lisa Germano’s violin matches Griffin’s soaring vocals.
But on “Impossible Dream,” Griffin is clearly looking to stretch. “Florida” shows off this ambition, taking the alt-country song’s melancholy realization that escaping from your hometown doesn’t let you escape from yourself, with haunting backing vocals and stark production. The first single, “Love Throws a Line,” crosses Bonnie Raitt blues with Southern gospel to encourage Griffin’s pleas for people to remember that love has a place in a dangerous world. “Standing” sounds like old-time gospel filtered through Depeche Mode synthesized starkness.
All this, though, is just a wind-up for the glorious “Don’t Come Easy.” The song unfolds like a U2 rocker, though Griffin cuts the testosterone with her plaintive vocals and lovely touches, such as Ian McLagan’s spare piano and Michael Ramos’ muted trumpet. The lyrics work on both personal and political levels, like much of Griffin’s work. “If you break down, I’ll drive out and find you,” she promises, trying to offer some stability in these uncertain times, even as she has doubts herself.
Griffin says she named “Impossible Dream” after the song from “The Man of La Mancha” (which her parents sing a snippet of on the album) because it reminded her of “a time when people thought about nobility, when they were trying to be above greed.” Returning to that time may indeed be impossible. But given the strength of Griffin’s dream, she may soon have an army of Sancho Panzas to back up her Don Quixote.
Patty Griffin
8 p.m. Monday, Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave., Seattle. $25, 206-628-0888.
Patty Griffin
8 p.m. Monday, Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave., Seattle. $25, 206-628-0888.
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