Griffin is from Old Town, Maine, United States, next to the PenobscotNative American reservation. The youngest child in her family, with six older siblings, she bought a guitar for $50 at age 16. She sang and played but had no inclination to become a professional musician. After a 6-year marriage, which ended in 1994, 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.[2]
Griffin's second album, Flaming Red, released in 1998, 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. Another song from the album, "Tony", is also featured on the charity benefit album Live in the X Lounge.
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). A&M dropped Griffin's contract after Silver Bell was recorded, and she was then signed by Dave Matthews' ATO Records. Griffin re-recorded songs from that album for later releases, such as "Making Pies", "Mother of God", "Standing", and "Top of the World". Copies of the unreleased Silver Bell were leaked and bootlegged and can be easily acquired by the B&P (blanks and postage) method on message boards.[3] In August 2013, it was announced that UMe planned to release Silver Bell, mixed by producer Glyn Johns, in October 2013.[4]
In 2004, Griffin toured with Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings as the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue. On February 6, 2007, she released Children Running Through. The album debuted at number 34 on the Billboard 200, with 27,000 copies sold.[5] Of the album, Griffin told Gibson Lifestyle, "I just kind of felt like singing what I wanted to sing, and playing how I wanted to play. It's not all dark and tragic. It's a different way for me to look at things. Getting old—older, I should say, I'm not so serious all the time."[6] It was also said that the album was inspired by her childhood.[7]
Griffin performing at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2006
In September 2008, Griffin sang "You Got Growing Up to Do" in a duet with indie artist Joshua Radin on his album Simple Times. In October 2008, she sang background vocals on Todd Snider's cover of John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son" for Snider's Peace Queer album. In February 2009, she was featured on the album Feel That Fire, by Dierks Bentley, in a duet on the song "Beautiful World". In 2009, Griffin, along with Mavis Staples and the Tri-City Singers released a version of the song "Waiting for My Child to Come Home" on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.[10]
Griffin performing "Up To the Mountain" at the Carter Reception Dinner during the Civil Rights Summit at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2014
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.[14]
In 2014 Griffin parted with Plant after a long relationship; they had lived together and divided their time between Austin, Texas, and England.[15] In 2019, Griffin released "River", a track from her upcoming self-titled album and her first new music since battling breast cancer. Patty Griffin was released on March 8, 2019.[16]
On January 11, 2019, along with an official announcement of her new album release Patty Griffin (on her PGM Recordings label via Thirty Tigers), a new song, "River", she announced a 2019 concert tour.[17] She followed this with Tape in 2022.
Film, television, and theater
In 1997, Griffin's song "Not Alone", from the album Living with Ghosts, was used in the final scene and ending credits for the 1997 film Niagara, Niagara. It was also used at the end of episode 6 ("Believers") of season 1 of the television series Crossing Jordan, broadcast on October 29, 2001; on the 2009 release of the soundtrack from the television series Without a Trace; and at the end of episode 12 of season 10 of the television series NCIS, which aired on January 15, 2013.
The 2006 film Griffin and Phoenix included "Nobody's Crying" and "Rain."
In 2006, her song "Rain" was used in episode 17 ("The Skull in the Desert") of season 1 of the television series Bones.
Griffin in 2019
In 2007, her song “Heavenly Day” was featured prominently at the end of episode 16 (“Promise”) of season 6 of the television series “Smallville”.
In 2007, the Atlantic Theater Company produced 10 Million Miles, an off-Broadway musical, directed by Michael Mayer, with music and lyrics by Griffin.
In 2009, her song "Mary" was used in episode 10 of season 2 of Sons of Anarchy, and "When It Don't Come Easy" closed out season 2, episode 8 of In Plain Sight.
In 2007, Griffin was named Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association, the top honor bestowed by the association, and her album Children Running Through was selected as Best Album. At the awards ceremony she performed "Trapeze" with Emmylou Harris harmonizing.[18]
On June 13, 2008, Griffin performed an acoustic-in-the-round set in Nashville with Kris Kristofferson and Randy Owen (Alabama), for a taping of a PBS songwriters series aired in December 2008. Each of them played five songs; Griffin performed "Top of the World," "Making Pies," "No Bad News," "Up to the Mountain," and "Mary."
In Jan 2013, the song "You Are Not Alone" was featured in episode 12 of season 10 of NCIS.
In May 2013, her song "Heavenly Day" was used in a commercial for Chevy's new Volt line of automobile, entitled "Volt: Silent Statement".
In May 2015, her song "Go Wherever You Wanna Go" was used in episode 22 of season 10 of the television series Supernatural.
In 2015, the song "Let him fly" was a turning point for Nick Yarris in the documentary "The Fear of Thirteen".
In 2018, the song "Heavenly Day" was featured in episode 5 of season one in the Netflix series Haunting of Hill House.
In 2023, Patty's 2013 performance of her song "I'm Gonna Miss You When You're Gone" in the Bing Lounge at 101.9 KINK.FM.[19] was included in Nick Cassavetes's action-thriller film God is a Bullet.
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