To date, I don't believe there's been a Patty Griffin CD worth any less than the highest praise, but Children Running Through is overall the best of her work to date. I suspect she's got a lot more to say and, hopefully, many more years to convey the message to us.

One thing about Children, it is the most diverse of all of her work so far. The opener, "You'll Remember," has a jazz beat and could easily have been covered by Holly Cole. "Trapeze" is a story-song in the tradition of old folkies like Harry Chapin and Woody Guthrie -- add to it the duet performance with Emmylou Harris and it's tops on my list of duets.

In my opinion, the only "miss" on this CD is "Up On a Mountain." Patty doesn't have the sound or the range to carry this song off -- but I'd love to hear someone like Shelby Lynne cover it.