Downtown Church

Griffin could have skated on the success of her last effort, but Downtown Church is a gutsy move, one that's as haunting and original as anything in her past.

Downtown Church is full of astonishing songs.

Patty Griffin has got religion, or at least the urge to sing about it, on her transcendent new gospel record. When she bends her raspy, gale-force voice to the task, it sounds as if she was born to do it.

There’s something about Griffin’s trilling pipes ricocheting through this vast and timeworn sanctuary that paints the album in an otherworldly, eternal hue as she dips deeply into gospel traditions.

The final number is “All Creatures of Our God and King”, a traditional hymn sung with piano only, and it showcases Griffin’s voice at its most pure, a fitting and mesmerizing end to an album that, regardless of one’s belief, is an uplifting, moving, and exquisite listening experience.

So while her voice is exquisite--a less burnished version of her pal Emmylou Harris'--it's still surprising to find her doing an LP of mainly cover

Fortunately for Griffin, the album boasts perhaps her finest performances to date, making Church an essential addition to her rich catalogue and a rewarding step in her ongoing emergence as more than just a go-to writer.

Though heartfelt, Downtown Church comes off as a little generic at times, landing squarely in the well-stocked category of “tasteful, intelligent, unruffled roots music.” But the Griffin-penned “Little Fire” and “Coming Home To Me”--both of which deal with the power of faith from multiple angles--frame the rest of the songs elegantly, while conveying her wariness