Mother of God (Patty Griffin)

“I thought I was very open minded because I wasn’t religious at all,” Patty Griffin once said. But she can never escape the long-reaching influences of growing up Catholic in America. Her songs are full of biblical and religious imagery - often delightfully run together, maintaining the reference while, at the same time, losing the detail. This is especially clear in her homage to her grandmother, "Mary," that taps into the contrasting images of the holy mother and the sister of Lazarus both at once. Everything by Patty Griffin is well-written and superbly performed.