Time still does the talking for Patty Griffin
“Time goin’ do the talking/ Years’ll do the walking,” soul great Bettye LaVette sang on her return to form last year and rising to the theme later in the song almost hollered “…change the locks on the door/ Learn how to take a little bit more/ I can outrun all the devils here/ But I just can’t outrun doubt."
LaVette might have taken a few liberties with the song but she did everyone a favour by covering it in the first place. It’s ‘Time Will Do The Talking’ the lead-off track from Living with Ghosts from Patty Griffin’s 1996 debut, an album that may well be long in the past but, although it may be a truism, great songs refuse to age.
Griffin is just announced to gig in the UK on the back of a new album American Kid to be released in May with a Union Chapel date in July. The new album was written to honour her father and is her first album of new material in six years. Of late Griffin has appeared as a guest with Robert Plant’s Band of Joy and toured solo dates of her own in the States last year according to Rolling Stone. A Top 40 Billboard album artist her songs have been covered by a wide range of artists across genres from the Dixie Chicks to Detroit soul great LaVette.
Listen to Bettye’s take on the song ‘Time Will Do The Talking’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVdeU0w5zs8
‘Ohio’ from American Kid you can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/newwestrecords/patty-griffin-ohio
Patty Griffin above