Artist Interview

Children Running Through

Children Running Through by Patty Griffin, published by ATO

Interview by Jeff McCord

February 2007

Austin chanteuse Patty Griffin is known for her deeply introspective music, yet her new album, Children Running Through (ATO), is joyous and fun.

You seem to change moods from album to album. Are you easily bored? Yeah, I can’t stand the songs anymore [laughs]. You get exhausted on the road and you end up repeating the set, so it gets to feel a little slutty. In the years since the war started, I’ve looked out at the faces in the audience and felt like I needed to have more material of my own that the audience could engage in with me. I’m really inspired by Willie Nelson; he picks these plums that everybody feels a part of.

You do seem liberated. When you get older, one of the great things is that you’re not cool anymore; there’s a lot of freedom in that. I’ve been reading Rumi, and I named the record after one of his poems:

I used to be shy, you made me sing
I used to refuse things at table, now I shout for more wine
In somber dignity, I used to sit on my mat and pray
Now children run through and make faces at me.
I think that’s pretty awesome.

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