Throughout the academic year and beyond, the UGA Performing Arts Center hosts some of the leading figures in classical music, jazz, world music and more. The wide-ranging UGA Presents season concludes Friday, May 17 with a performance by singer-songwriter Patty Griffin at 7:30 p.m. at Hodgson Concert Hall.
Over the course of two decades, the two-time Grammy Award winner has crafted a rich body of work from multiple genres, including Americana, folk and gospel. She chronicles the deeply personal emotional experiences of her life: love and death, heartache and joy, connection and detachment. PopMatters sums her up: “Griffin is an artist of the heart and mind. Her songs inspire deep feelings and deep thoughts.”
HER RISE TO RECOGNITION
Born in Maine but long based in Austin, Texas, Griffin made an immediate impact with her 1996 debut, Living with Ghosts, and its 1998 follow-up, Flaming Red — both now considered seminal works of modern folk and Americana. Since then, her diverse body of work spans such classic LPs as 2002’s Grammy Award-nominated 1000 Kisses — later ranked #15 on Paste’s The 50 Best Albums of the Decade (2000-2009) — to 2007’s Children Running Through, honored by the Americana Music Association with two Americana Honors and Awards including artist of the year and album of the year.
Downtown Church (2011), which blends traditional gospel favorites with Griffin’s own spiritually questioning material, debuted at No. 1 on both Billboard’s Folk Albums and Christian Albums charts before winning 2011’s Best Traditional Gospel Album Grammy Award.
COVERED BY THE BEST
Widely regarded among the best pure songwriters of this or any other era, Griffin has had her work performed by a truly epic assortment of her fellow artists, among them Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Solomon Burke, Kelly Clarkson & Jeff Beck, Martina McBride, and Miranda Lambert, to name but a few.
In addition to her creative career, Griffin has also devoted considerable energy and focus toward the wellbeing of the planet, as well as showing compassion for the less fortunate among us via personal and public acts of charity, including the 2017 Lampedusa Tour supporting the Jesuit Refugee Service and the 2019 Women’s Refugee Commission Tour.
Having crafted a rich catalogue, Patty Griffin continues to push her art forward, as always imbuing every effort with compassion and craft, uncanny perception, and ever-increasing ingenuity.
SUPPORTED BY
Janet Rodekohr
THREE WAYS TO ORDER TICKETS
- Purchase tickets online 24/7 online here.
- Call the Performing Arts Center Box Office at (706) 542-4400, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
- Visit the UGA Performing Arts Center Box Office, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (5 minute parking is available in the drop off circle at the Performing Arts Center for purchasing or picking up tickets.)