I think that the question I get asked most about being a DJ is "what music do you listen to when you are not on-air?"  Well, that's not an easy question to answer, but Patty Griffin fits in there somewhere.....

I guess that if you asked the average KTDY listener about the listening habits of their favorite DJ, the answers would go something like this:  CJ listens to Elvis; Debbie Ray listens to the Eagles; Steve Wiley listens to Eric Clapton, and JayCee listens to Edwin McCain.  Those answers are probably mostly correct: in my case, Edwin McCain only scratches the surface of the music that I listen to when I am not listening to KTDY.

One artist I like in particular is Patty Griffin.  Let me guess: you've never heard of her.  Well, many people haven't, though she is a huge name in the singer-songwriter genre.  She is a Grammy winning artist; she's performed with Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Natalie Maines and many others; she's put out 10 albums since 1996; she has had her music featured on movie and television soundtracks; her songs have been covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris and the Dixie Chicks.  She's a pretty big deal.

And, she was in Lafayette last night.

Bayou Vermilion at Vermilionville (Staff Photo)
Bayou Vermilion at Vermilionville (Staff Photo)
loading...

Frank and Tony were able to snag her for a performance at Vermilionville as she routed through to New Orleans.  With her Canadian-French heritage, Patty Griffin finds being in Lafayette comforting.  "I'm genetically connected to the people from this area" she said last night, as her band opened with a French song.  Not quite the "Cajun French" that we are accustomed to, but it was French, nonetheless.

Performance Center at Vermilionville (Staff Photo)
Performance Center at Vermilionville (Staff Photo)
loading...

The first Patty Griffin song that I was introduced to was "Let Him Fly", off of her first studio album "Living With Ghosts".  The song was about  the beauty of "letting go."

 

 

Patty Griffin at Vermilionville (Staff Photo)
Patty Griffin at Vermilionville (Staff Photo)
loading...

 

She didn't play that one last night.  She did play another one of my favorites:  Chief.  It's about a Native American who served in Vietnam, and when he returned home, he wasn't the same, and he just kind of marched all around town, day and night.

 

 

And then there is a song she played last night that many people have used as their wedding song.  It's called "Heavenly Day", and I have always thought that it was a beautiful love song.  Last night, Patty Griffin explained her inspiration for writing the song.  It WAS written as a love song, but it was about her dog.  Ha!!  It was a cute story about her dog coming in from playing on a beautiful day and just collapsing in her lap from exhaustion.

 

 

Another that she didn't play last night is "Long Ride Home".  Another of my favorites by Patty...

 

 

And then there is "Don't Come Easy"....

 

 

And now I am realizing that if I don't try to end this post, it will go on until I run out of Patty Griffin music.  Suffice it to say that, when I am not on the radio, I can often be found in the house or in the Jeep with Patty Griffin music on, talking to my heart.  Or Shawn Mullins.  Or Edwin McCain.  Or Ray LaMontagne, or Amos Lee, Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Amy Mann... I can sit and listen to almost any singer-songwriter with a guitar, I guess.

Okay, one more Patty song, just for good measure... it's Patty covering Bruce Springsteen's "Stolen Car"...

 

 

Okay, so I concentrated on only one of the artists that I listen to when I am not on the radio... maybe in a future post, I can tackle one of the other artists that I mentioned...

 

(Via Youtube)

 

 

 

More From 99.9 KTDY