"There's secrets I don't tell ever to myself" are the first words from
Patty Griffin's mouth on her eleventh album, 2025's
Crown of Roses, and given her well-documented willingness to bare her soul in her songs, that sounds just a bit hard to imagine. As confessional as she may be,
Griffin is subject to the same life crises as anyone else, and in the years before she recorded
Crown of Roses, fate threw her more than her share of obstacles. She was in treatment for breast cancer, she lost her voice for a while, she struggled with writer's block, she ended a serious romantic relationship, and she became one of her mother's caretakers during the last years of her life, which meant coming to terms with their thorny relationship. As an artist,
Griffin deals with tough times through her music, and
Crown of Roses is as much about the process of wrestling with her sorrows as about coming out the other side. This is art as therapy, and these songs are deeply personal expressions of the pains of her heart and soul, though they touch on enough commonalities to be relatable to nearly everyone. The particulars of any two adult's relationships with their parents will be different, but as
Griffin sings about the life her mother had and the life she could have had on "Way Up to the Sky," it's all but impossible not to understand her story and the hard road she traveled, and it's a remarkably moving piece of work.
Griffin is willing to let every bit of the grain in her voice show as she sings it, and the beauty of the performance is all the more impactful for the slightly weathered humanity in her delivery. "Way Up to the Sky" is one of eight extraordinary songs on
Crown of Roses, and if not every piece is quite as revealing, there are few moments here where you don't feel as if
Griffin has offered us a privileged glimpse into the lives that have shaped her heart, from the gospel-influenced message of perseverance in "I Know A Way" to the contemplation of life's cruel lessons in "Born in a Cage." Simply put, there are precious few singer/songwriters with
Patty Griffin's level of craft, empathy, and wisdom, and nearly every album she gives us is a gift. That's absolutely the case with
Crown of Roses, and it demands to be heard. ~ Mark Deming
