Patty Griffin's amazing - there's no other word for it - and working my way through her discography has brought me to this one, from 1998, her second lp. There's a hell of a lot of craft to it, both in the writing and the performing, and it covers a fair bit of stylistic ground while always anchored in a distinctly southern feel, rootsy folk mid-tempo things, sunny pop-rock, genuine rock and roll, and even a jazzily torchy number ("Go Now") all tackled with equal aplomb; occasionally, there's are production or instrumentation choices that would've dated another record (e.g. the background synth/percussion and throbbing bassline combinations that show up on songs like "Christina" and "Mary" - both of which I already knew from their live appearances on A Kiss In Time and which, in those elements, for me fleetingly call to mind the records that Natalie Imbruglia and Tori Amos were also putting out around this same time) but instead are somehow subsumed into, even add to, the classic air of the thing. So many glorious moments...
