Patty Griffin Explores Family Ties On American Kid

Patty Griffin will release her seventh studio album, American Kid, on May 7. Recorded in Memphis and co-produced with singer-songwriter/Lisa Germano guitarist Craig Ross, it’s her first album for the label New West Records.

Griffin says her followup to 2010’s Downtown Church was written largely to honor her late father — a high school science teacher and World War II vet who lost his parents early in his life. Mr. Griffin, who lived for a time in a Trappist monastery, raised Patty and her six siblings, and, on one memorable birthday, gave her the life-altering gift of The Beatles’  Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band.

American Kid features instrumental work from North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson and drummer Cody Dickinson, whom she met when they opened up for Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy in 2011 (Luther also taught Griffin to play mandolin.) Griffin’s longtime guitarist Doug Lancio appears on the album as well, and Ross adds multiple instrumental touches.

“Part of the reason [for recording in Memphis] was the chance to get away from what I’d been doing,” says Griffin in a press statement. “With the Dickinsons, you’re constantly seeing people who work to get away from what they’re used to.”

Check out the track listing and album art below, and stay tuned for 2013 tour dates.

American Kid Tracklisting:

Go Wherever You Want To Go
Don’t Let Me Die In Florida
Ohio
Wild Old Dog
Mom & Dad’s Waltz
Faithful Son
Highway Son
That Kind of Lonely
Irish Boy
Get Ready Marie
Not A Bad Man
Gonna Miss You When You’re Gone