From: owner-mad-mission-digest@smoe.org (mad-mission-digest) To: mad-mission-digest@smoe.org Subject: mad-mission-digest V2 #276 Reply-To: mad-mission@smoe.org Sender: owner-mad-mission-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-mad-mission-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk * If you ever wish to unsubscribe, send an email to * mad-mission-digest-request@smoe.org * with ONLY the word unsubscribe in the body of the email * . * For the latest information on Patty's tour dates, go to: * http://www.spectra.net/~ducksoup/pattyg/patttyg.htm * OR * go to http://www.amrecords.com * then click "tour" and fill in the blanks :) * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: mad-mission-digest V2 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. mad-mission-digest Friday, September 18 1998 Volume 02 : Number 276 Today's Subjects: ----------------- MM: long long long story ["Paul Russell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 19:53:34 PDT From: "Paul Russell" Subject: MM: long long long story Hi There. I just wanted to say that I'm so elated there are so many people who have heard of, and like, Patty Griffin! I think it's absolutely great and I'm happy for her success thus far with hopes for future success. Y'all are fantastic for being part of Ms. Griffin's fan/friend backbone kind of thing. Her voice is incredible! There are artists few and far between whose vocal range goes from as low as Allison Moyet's range to as high as Ricki Lee Jones. I've got the Living With Ghosts CD and I think it's neat that she at times sounds like Nanci Griffith from her Flyer CD, and at times like Stevie Nicks (only with more clarity)... My name's Paul. HOw I got here to this mailing list is quite a long strange trip, and I'll go ahead and share it with you. (disclaimer: I don't mean to offend anyone, or dis anyone, so no flames please, it's just the way I write...however, if I do offend you for some reason and you wnat to take it up personally with me, that's your prerogative.) Anyway, if you start reading and you wonder what my point is, it is this: I'm like entirely overjoyed that Patty Griffin not only has a growing number of fans, but that she has a second album, and also that she's getting airplay (and consequently, more fame). I feel she totally deserves it all....not that I'm dying to talk with her or meet her or anything, I just want to hear her music. SO, that's (more or less) the main point. I say this now because I always tend to get off track at what I'm writing about and end up with like seriously long letters all the time. I'll need to start off with a bit of background information, so if you're not interested in that part (which most of you probably aren't) I guess I'll leave some empty lines or something when I get to the main part, so you can scroll down or whatever. I like to write, can you tell? Now let me think, some background... I've been a DJ at three colleges playing all kinds of music and broadening people's horizons whenever I could. Now that I've graduated I miss being so hip and up-to-the-second informed of new trends and artists in the music industry. For instance, I started playing Alanis Morresette on one of my radio shows like in the ancient days when I couldn't even pronounce her name, let alone think she would become so freaking popular...not that I'm even REMOTELY taking ANY ounce of credit for her success, after all Madonna (Queen of Pop) signed her, I'm just saying that along with many others I heard her, played her, and liked her a whole year before any real radio station would give her airtime....but I'm digressing here and it's not important to why I like Ms. Griffin's music except for this: I listen to (or at least up until about 8 months ago), and like, a lot of music. Incidentally, I'm an 80's freak and have sadly enough been living in the 80's for quite some time (like since 1993, pretty sad, huh?) but I think the music still kicks ass and everyone SEEMED to like it whenever I did an 80's show on the radio. Enough of this, I could type for hours and I'm writing this at work so I'm moving on (thank God you say). Alright, if you are unaware of practices behind some alternative college radio stations let me explain this. Every semester we get tons of CDs from MANY bands, most of whom you will never ever hear again (and for good reason). Local bands muster up money to put together some sort of CD while major labels send us all the "potential" stuff to see how much it gets played and how our audiences like it before sending it to repetitious top 40 stations. In any event, if we kept all these CDs, there would be absolutely NO room at the station; so we trash hundreds and hundreds...literally thousands of CDs at the end of each semester. (Sometimes we in the office of my last radio station would randomly take CDs out in front of people and break it apart of throw it around like a frisbee to get their eyes to bulge out of their sockets. One of the alternative music directors I worked with took like hundreds of CDs to his house and hung them all up in his room like wallpaper to create this psycho-mirror room.) Now, no flames please, I know this is wrong, I know it's wrong. "This is art you're dealing with, people's hopes, dreams, feelings, music, etc.." But please understand that when you slave around a small time, alternative (REAL alternative, not Pearl Jam mainstream mind you) college radio station, CDs are coming out of the woodwork and destroying one is like a billionaire lighting a cigar with $100 bills. The point is we literally throw away CDs...during the semester they are called "giveaways" and what's left at the end gets dumped. Anyway, being always on the lookout for good music I liked to go through the leftovers and save about a hundred CDs for my own collection before they were tossed. Keep in mind that from this "elite" pile of 100-110 CDs, I end up tossing most of it away anyway cuz it's crap. And it's gotta be pretty bad for ME (a guy who likes all kinds of music except polka, and even some polkas are okay) to think a band is crap. So last summer (end of spring semester 1997) I finished up my finals and I'm quickly picking out CDs to take home and peruse at my own leasure later. This particular semester I was limiting my CD intake to (and you're gonna think I'm shallow, but I'm really not)bands with girls as lead singers, Punk looking bands, ska-looking bands, and CDs with cute chicks on the cover.(Of course any CD combining these categories were given more preferential treatment.) My little stash got to be about 200+. So I started the Pre-listening phase by discarding about a hundred. ****It was during this time that I first saw Patty Griffin's Living With Ghosts. (now you're really gonna think I'm shallow, but I'm not) I thought to myself, "hey, she's pretty cute." and stuck her CD along with many others in a box destined for the Rental's (parents) house. Then I went off and did a 10 week internship, then I go back home and have about a month before returning back to classes. (hold on, I gotta go do my job here and start Master Control Operating. I'll be right back..)Okay, where was I? Oh, anyway, I get home and I open the box of CDs and start the listening phase. After about 20 or so CDs I get to Ms. Griffin's CD. That's when I stopped listening to anything else for the remainder of my parental visitation duration. I was blown away! It was so passionate, so personal, so deep, so raw...so good! Not to mention how beautiful her voice was. (yeah, fraction sentence, not a complete thought, but yeah well.) It was about two weeks later and listening to the album about 60+ times I noticed that there wasn't a band, just her and a guitar, and I loved it even more. I mean, I really really really liked Nanci Griffith's Flyer CD (which, by the way came into my possession in similar circumstances; except that I recognized her name from when I lived in Ireland for 3 months, but that's WAY another story and I'm constantly flying off the subject here, and I loved this much better than Flyer. I couldn't believe that this CD was almost trashed, and I think it probably wasn't played all that much because it probably sounded folkish and more country than alternative (example, "Poor Man's House" starts off sounding country, twangs and all, and progresses to actual alternative status at the end). I was so moved by the album that I actually wrote a letter to the only address on the CD which was the manager's address, who was....hmmmm, I think (but don't quote me on this) was like Michael Baxter, or Baker or Bakker or Baine(I don't have the CD with me, but I'm pretty sure it was a Michael something. ANYWAY, I wrote to him that I thought Ms. Griffin rocked and if he had ANY information about previous albums, up-coming albums, fan-information, concert dates in the Wilkes-Barre Scranton-Allentown area of Pennsylvania, ANYTHING, to please let me know because I was dying to find out more about her. When I got back to school I played her on the radio (the same station that almost threw her out) about 40 percent of my shows (which were mostly alternative, industrial, or 80's so her music really stuck out; but hey, I wanted everyone to hear her and go out to buy her albums). At school, I toned down the Patty Griffin listening to only like 3 or 4 songs a day....or every other day...stuff like that. I mean, this is serious messed up; I don't do this....ever. Now the sad part: Well, everyone whom I talked to never heard of Patty Griffin, and I talk to a wide variety of people who are fans of many an obscure band. I never saw her name or heard about her through any popular media, or zines. To add to this, I never received a response to my letter, which is quite understandable; I mean come on, who has time to respond to everyone when someone he manages gains popularity. However, this sent me, apparently, the wrong signal. You see, having worked in the college radio station scene thing, I've come to find out that managers and labels tend to be over-energetic and will be breaking down doors to tell you anything you want to know about the artist, especially when they are no-namers. The only two times they don't usually respond is when either the artist is gaining popularity (at which time you start to hear the artist on the radio, or see the artist on TV, or friends start telling you about this new artist) OR they stop responding when the artist fades into oblivion due to the band splitting up or lack of interest. So, I figured since I never got a response (and Ms. Griffin was nowhere to be found in the usual media outlets)that she was fading off into where millions of bands fade and her great potential would never be realized...and I would basically have one of the few scattered copies of her only album that never really made it. Kinda tragic, but yeah well. So, by December 1997, I sadly put Ms. Griffin out of my mind. Now we get to the part in my story that passes about 8-months. I'm REALLY sorry for writing all this but I think it's interesting how I got myself onto this forum; and I've been telling myself for the past few weeks that "ain't this a kick in the head!" So, I've gotta tell someone; and no-one else cares about (or even knows about) Patty Griffin more than y'all. So I'm relaying this whole thing to you complete strangers. Incidentally, I still love listening to Ms. Griffin's voice, but at least I'm no longer "compelled" to listen to Living With Ghosts 24-7 anymore (thank god, that was getting eerie from an objective standpoint cuz that just never happens to me.I've NEVER felt COMPELLED to listened to an artist, just in the mood; but this was way different). Anyway, now we get to the part where it's this summer, I'm graduated, I find a job, and I've gotta move all my stuff 2100 freaking miles from PA to FLA. So I rent this U-Haul truck that only has a radio (foreshadow, foreshadow, foreshadow). So, I'm cruising on down in this truck with my couches, lamps, drums, dishes, appliances, everything. I'm not going down 95 as most of my friends automatically think, because I live in the freakish Florida panhandle in the Central Time zone and would add like a whole DAY to drive I95 down, then I-10 over, but once again I'm digressing a great deal...(and I don't mean to dis anyone that lives in FLA's freakish panhandle, but you have to admit...). Now we get to the part where all that extraneous background information comes to light (and also a cool part). Can you see why I explained the point of this letter up front? If I didn't you'd probably be going, "what the hell is the point?" And I'm awfully sorry to be writing this long and taking up all kinds of space on your e-mail accounts, not to mention killing my wrists), but I'm almost done. Anyway, I have driven an awful lot and being "raised on radio" so to speak, I like to sort of play a game where I name the song playing on the radio within like 3 chords (sometimes longer, but you know what I mean, real fast...kinda like Name that Tune). I have amazed, or probably more like annoyed, a few friends by knowing what the song was , saying it aloud, and changing the station before they could even think about it. (I can't do this with rap yet, or country, but I'm working on it). If I'm in a "particular song" mood I can be quite ridiculous with the radio (like the stereo-typical "guy with the TV remote thing). So, I'm tearing through these radio stations stating artists, songs, albums, whatever I can do to convince myself I know it, and stopping on the songs I want to hear. I'm going down 81 and pass Knoxville and out of TN and into AL. But wait, get this. I'm on my way into Birmingham and I'm flicking radio stations and I come to this one song. (and I'm switching tenses rather sporadically, but hey, I'm a college graduate) I sat there listening and said, "you know, if I didn't know any better I'd say that this was Patty Griffin. But it can't be her because no one's ever heard of her. She wouldn't be on a radio station like this." (the X or something, ninety something,I don't know, but they're playing Matchbox 20 and Marilyn Manson...the only one in the area). I'm intrigued because I've heard this woman's voice, but I just can't place her. I say again,"I swear to god this sounds like Patty Griffin, but I know better; besides there's a band behind her and Patty's only got the guitar. It's gotta be Nanci Griffith or someone. But if I didn't know any better I would say this is Patty Griffin." Yeah, I'm talking to myself...it's hard not to when you're driving by yourself in an uncomfortable U-Haul for two days. So, the song ends and the next song comes on and I name it, then keep station searching but settle back at that station. Then after that song the DJ came on and said, "blah blah blah, and a new one by Patty Griffin...blah blah blah, who will be appearing with Edwin Collin at blah blah..." And my eyes pop open and I'm like "Holy S**t that WAS Patty Griffin. Oh my God that was great!! That was awesome!! Patty Griffin ON THE RADIO. This is great! Holy s**t. I can't believe Patty Griffin was on the radio...You go girl!" Yeah, now I'm shouting to myself which is worse than talking to yourself, but hey, I was excited. So, I get back here and in my free time I decide to look up that radio station in Birmingham on the internet to see Patty Griffin's concert dates in the area. Unfortunately, just like the woman who lives in that area that I read like 10 messages ago) I couldn't go either. It was is mid-August and for me it's a 5-hour drive for a 2 hour concert (yuck). But anyway, there were links to other Patty Griffin stuff (I'm spelling her name right, right? It would be a real pitty if I wasn't)and then I found webpages, and then this. I'm at first I'm awestruck that there are other people who have heard of Patty Griffin; and did I hear right? She's got a new album? That's excellent! So I sign up for this Mad-mishers thing to get an idea of Ms. Griffin's following. A week later I check my email and BANG! there are 150 messages all people talking about Patty Griffin, her new album, and whatever is Patty Griffin related. I mean, totally raisin the roof! I'm so glad for Patty Griffin to be doing so well. I hope to get this next album soon if I can find it, but Pensacola isn't exactly the mecca of music here. The stores that I've been in didn't even have the new Prodigy CD yet, go figure. Apparently there has been lot's of discussion on her new album already and comparison which is way cool! It's Patty, it's a second album, and that's good enough for me. And I just think it's so weird that this Living With Ghosts CD would plop right into my hands; especially because it was already a year old and it really should have been tossed by that time. I'm so glad it wasn't. It really pleases me to know of so many other people also into Patty Griffin. I truly hope she does well. Okay, I'll stop writing, look at the time. I've been sitting here WAY too long. Sorry if this was boring or a waste of space, or just plain weird. But just like listening to Living With Ghosts almost daily last year this time, I've felt compelled to write this just to let you know my story and how much it brightens my day to see 65-75 email messages about Patty Griffin waiting for me in my in-box every time I log on. And I'm not one who really likes a lot of email (I don't subscribe to these things very often, I'd probably go crazy if I did.) Take care and I'll be waiting for Ms. Griffin to sing around here. eternally, paul ********************************************* * A party. You know. There's going to be * * sex, drugs, rock n roll, chips, dips, * * chains, whips. You know, your basic high-* * school orgy type thing. Just a couple * * hundred kids running around in their * * underwear. * * --Lisa from Weird Science * ********************************************* ------------------------------ End of mad-mission-digest V2 #276 *********************************