Patty Griffin is a tender, fierce songwriting veteran who works mostly in the blues and folk milieu. Her steely voice and bone-rattling lyrics have earned her Grammys and the respect and love of kindred spirits like Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, who Griffin briefly dated. There’s traces of their dissolution in her new album Servant Of Love — the title track, “Hurt A Little While” and “Good And Gone” for starters — but mostly, this is a record that dwells in deeper mysticisms and wiry determinations that transcend mere heartbreak. “Rider Of Days” turns living into a physical journey soundtracked by a fleet of harmonies, and “Snake Charmer” is a sizzling, slanted southern rocker full of threats that may or may not be empty. Similarly, “Gunpowder” threatens to explode, trigger-happy and drunk on the power of brassy tension. Despite any bluster, the record rings with a sense of peace and an enlightened perspective that supersedes anger or blame. “There isn’t one way / There isn’t one way / There’s just your way for you / And that’s the right way,” Griffin sings on “There Isn’t One Way.” It’s a simple, almost child-like interpretation of personal philosophy, but she sings it like a slow revelation, and that’s what the whole album feels like: A slow revelation from a woman who consistently rises above the fray.

Stream it here.

Griffin is touring this fall, check out her full dates below:
09/22 Waco, TX @ Common Grounds
09/23 Austin, TX @ Paramount Theater
09/25 Louisville, KY @ Headliners
09/26 Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
09/27 Pittsburgh, PA @ Byham Theater
09/29 Alexandria, VA @ The Birchmere
10/01 New York, NY @ Town Hall
10/02 Boston, MA @ Somerville Theater
10/03 Orono, ME @ Collins Center
10/04 Montreal, QUE @ L’Astral
10/06 Northampton, MA @ Academy of Music
10/07 Philadelphia, PA @ Keswick Theater
10/09 Ithaca, NY @ State Theater
10/10 Ann Arbor, MI @ Power Center
10/11 Columbus, OH @ Lincoln Theater
10/13 Chicago, IL @ The Vic
10/14 Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
10/15 Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
10/17 Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel

Servant Of Love is out 9/25 via Griffin’s self-owned label imprint in conjunction with Thirty Tigers.